Grace Bethuram
By Ken Severson
For The Republic
GREENWOOD — Two first half goals were all that Columbus North needed, as the Bull Dogs held off the Woodmen 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the girls soccer Greenwood Sectional.
North (12-2-3) now will take on Whiteland Thursday at Greenwood in the first semifinal at 6 p.m. Columbus East will play Center Grove in the second semifinal at around 8 p.m.
The Bull Dogs opened up the scoring with a fortuitous bounce in the 11th minute. Grace Bethuram lobbed a kick that hit the crossbar, but then bounced out of the reach of Greenwood goalie Brook Benefiel and then trickled past the goal line.
Buoyed by the goal, North kept up the pressure and scored again 15 minutes later on an own goal that hit one of the Woodmen and deflected past Benefiel, who was in position to stop the kick.
Greenwood appeared to score early in the second half. However the officials ruled that North goalie Danika Hoehn already had secured the ball before the Woodmen kicked it in.
Greenwood finally got on the board when Katia Loper blasted one in the upper net to cut the Bull Dog lead to 2-1 in the 65th minute.
Having the long-awaited goal, the Woodmen tried to keep up the pressure for a tie and came tantalizingly close on a couple occasions, but unlike North’s first goal, the bounces of the ball were either awry off the net or too hard and barely clearing the net.
That was it though, as the Bull Dogs thwarted the rest of the Greenwood’s attempts.
