Columbus North’s Paige Terry makes a save on a Whiteland shot on goal during a sectional soccer match between Whiteland and Columbus North at Break-O-Day Soccer Field in Whiteland, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023.
Rob Baker | For The Republic
NEW WHITELAND — Addison Emberton was decked out in a highlighter neon green jersey on Wednesday night, but even if she’d been wearing a dull gray, Whiteland’s junior goalkeeper would have shone just as brightly.
Playing soccer for the first time in her life this fall, Emberton looked every bit the seasoned veteran that she isn’t, making several critical saves to help the host Warriors hold on for a 1-0 triumph over Columbus North in a Class 3A sectional opener at Break-O-Day Elementary school.
Whiteland (11-5-1) will play an 8 p.m. semifinal match tonight against Roncalli, which opened the evening with a 3-1 victory over Franklin. Columbus East will face Franklin Central in the 6 p.m. opener.
“It comes down to relying on a high school kid to make a play,” North coach David Young said. “We had high school players that made plays all day, and their high school player in goal made a couple of really, really nice plays to keep them in it.”
The Warriors drew first blood with a shocking goal out of the corner just over 14 minutes into the match. Emma Gill served up a ball from deep in the right corner that not only made its way in front of the goal mouth untouched, but managed to roll all the way across the goal line before a Bull Dog defender could clear it out.
North had a golden opportunity to even it up in the 28th minute of play, getting a point-blank shot from about 10 yards out. Emberton, though, came out and met the shot head-on, making the stop to keep the Bull Dogs off the board.
“The first half, we made (Emberton) look real good,” Young said. “We put two or three right at her chest. Anytime you play against a decent team like Whiteland, and you put two or three at their chest and you’re down 1-0 at halftime, you could be up two or three, the halftime speech is a little bit different.”
Gill had another chance to double the lead less than three minutes into the second half, but her shot from about five yards out on the left side was stopped by North netminder Paige Terry.
Freshman Avery Baker put a hard shot on goal from the top of the box with 21 minutes to go in regulation, but Emberton managed to jump high enough to tap the ball over the crossbar. The Bull Dogs (6-7-3) got a touch on the ensuing corner kick but it rolled wide left of the net.
Another North corner in the 66th minute was snatched out of the air by Emberton, who charged out two minutes later to beat the Bull Dogs’ Page Mora to a loose ball 15 yards out.
Whiteland had another shot to go up by two down the stretch, but Hailey Hillhouse’s hard shot from 20 yards out on the right sailed a bit high. Another good shot about 80 seconds later, this one a Madison Fleury attempt from out by the left sideline, was stopped by Terry.
The Bull Dogs applied some late pressure but were unable to get a clean look at the goal in the final five minutes.
One silver lining for Young was the youth of the team he had on the field.
“The fun thing is that six of those players on the field tonight were freshmen,” Young said, singling out Evelin Lopez for her efforts throughout the second half.
