Columbus North’s Anthony Johnson watches his header during Saturday’s regional against Floyd Central at Bloomington South.
Chris Williams | For The Republic
The Columbus North boys soccer team may have caught a big break last week when Cathedral upset Carmel in the Carmel Regional final.
The Bull Dogs, who shut out Floyd Central 5-0 in the Bloomington South Regional final, have only one loss this season, and that came against Carmel. North will be facing a Cathedral team that it beat 1-0 on Sept. 1 in the semistate at around 3 p.m. Saturday at Seymour.
But the Class 3A No. 4 Bull Dogs certainly aren’t going into the rematch overconfident.
“I’m really excited about Saturday,” senior forward Nathan Imlay said. “It’s the most excited I’ve been in a really long time, especially for my soccer career. I do feel very confident in our team, but obviously, there’s no need to go in there just thinking we’re going to win. We want to go in like we always do for any other game.”
The Irish (10-7-5) won only one of their first 10 games this season and were 5-7-5 in the regular season before rolling off five consecutive wins in the postseason. Their sectional final win against Perry Meridian, regional semifinal at East Central and regional final at Carmel came on penalty kicks after those games were tied 1-1 at the end of regulation and overtime.
Columbus North’s Flynn Keele, right, battles Floyd Central’s Dakota Hart for the ball during Saturday’s regional at Bloomington South.
Chris Williams | For The Republic
“We definitely need to pull out our best performance,” North senior midfielder Flynn Keele said. “They’re definitely going to be a good side, so we’ll need the best of both halves to try and beat them. We can’t come out soft. We have to play them straight up and try and play our game.”
The Bull Dogs (18-1-1) played without three starters in their regular-season matchup with Cathedral, including junior midfielder Aidan Whitley, who fractured his collarbone the second game of the year and did not return until the final game of the regular season.
“We played them earlier in the season, and it was not our greatest game,” senior midfielder Anthony Johnson said. “I wouldn’t say it was our worst performance, either. We were missing three starters, and we still had the outcome that we were looking for.”
Columbus North’s Nathan Imlay dribbles upfield during Saturday’s regional against Floyd Central at Bloomington South.
Chris Williams | For The Republic
“I think when we played them, we were a little handicapped, but we didn’t play our best game, either,” Imlay added. “I think if we play the way we’ve been playing, I’m excited about our chances.”
The Irish are led by sophomore forward Calvin Kurzawa’s 16 goals and 11 assists. Senior forward Josh Wesseling has 10 goals and nine assists.
This will be the third game in a row in which North will be playing a team that it beat during the regular season. Last week’s regional victories against Center Grove and Floyd Central were its second over those teams this year.
“It’s tough to beat a good team twice, and we’ve had to do that twice, and we’ll be confronted with that challenge a third time, which I think speaks to the strength of our schedule,” North coach Andy Glover said. “Cathedral is a good team. They play a good brand of soccer. They’re very well organized and very disciplined, but I think our team is, as well. If we defend the way that we try hard to prepare them to defend, we’ll see where the ball bounces.”
Imlay (11 goals, four assists), Keele (10 goals, five assists) and junior midfieler Christian Cardoso (10 goals, four assists) lead the Bull Dogs in scoring. Junior midfielder Obed Oliva (seven goals, four assists) and junior forward Nico Gotoh (six goals, three assists) also have provided some offensive punch. Whitley has four goals and one assist in only eight games.
North is mostly healthy for Saturday, with the exception of starting freshman defender Leo Iorio, who sprained an ankle in Saturday’s regional final. Iorio is hoping to be able to play in the semistate.
“We haven’t fired on all cylinders all season,” Glover said. “When all cylinders are firing, which we haven’t seen yet, we stand to be a really good soccer team. We’re pushing to find our best performance. I certainly don’t feel that we had that in the first half against Floyd, but it came around and got a little more mature in the second, and I think that’s an example of what we can do when we construct our best performance. I only hope we can do that when it matters even more this coming weekend.”
