FLOYDS KNOBS — Revenge hasn’t been the goal of New Albany’s boys’ soccer team. It has just been an added bonus of its run to Monday’s Floyd Central Regional championship.
New Albany’s 1-0 semifinal win over Jeffersonville on Saturday was the Bulldogs’ third postseason win over a team that had beaten them in the regular season.
“They know they can play with these teams,” New Albany coach Ben Vigar said. “I can’t say enough about the hearts that they have. They don’t want the season to be over.”
Count Jeffersonville coach Ryan Bixler among those not surprised by the Dogs’ postseason success.
“New Albany struggled a little bit in the middle of the season. But watching them throughout the season, they never were a bad team,” the Red Devils coach said. “They’ve had the talent all along and they put it together at the right time.”
Prior to beating the Red Devils, New Albany had taken down Corydon Central, Silver Creek and Floyd Central last week to win its second straight sectional title.
The Panthers and Highlanders had beaten the Bulldogs earlier in the campaign. New Albany is now on a season-best, five-game winning streak and is now 8-10-1 heading into the regional final.
All this may come as bad news for Seymour. The Owls beat Madison 4-0 on Saturday and will be the Bulldogs’ opponent Monday for the regional crown.
Unfortunately for Seymour, it beat New Albany 6-0 in the two sides’ first meeting.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” Vigar admitted. “Seymour’s a tough team, but our guys are playing with heart. If they keep playing with confidence, I think they’ll be successful.”
In the 25th minute, freshman Andrew Hirsch spun a loose ball into the Jeffersonville box. Sophomore Kameron Jenkins left his feet and got his head on the ball with enough force to get the shot past a diving Cauldon Feldhaus of the Red Devils to give New Albany the only goal of the contest.
“Drew Hirsch played an amazing ball right to my head,” Jenkins recalled. “I was just praying that it went in.”
“I’ve talked to the guys all year about getting the ball outside, then getting it back to the middle when we’re in position, and Drew Hirsch had a beautiful cross. It was great,” Vigar said.
Jenkins’ goal was the culmination of an eight-minute period in which New Albany had six shots on goal and seven legitimate scoring chances.
“All season, one of our problems has been finishing,” Vigar said. “And even though we didn’t score a lot tonight, I like the way we kept attacking.”
In the first half, the Bulldogs outshot Jeff 13-8, had eight shots on goal to Jeff’s two, and had eight scoring chances to the Devils’ two.
Jeffersonville had its chances to tie the score in the second half. Early in the half, Spencer Whiteman and Gavin Leavell had shots scoring chances that both went just wide right of the goal.
With 4:33 remaining, Leavell sent a ball toward the goal from 20 yards out. New Albany goalkeeper Danny Hartman got his fingertips on the ball. The ball ricocheted off of the cross bar and back into the arms of Hartman.
“That’s the way it goes sometimes,” Bixler said. “It doesn’t matter how you play out on the field if you don’t put (the ball) in the back of the net.”
Jeff’s season ends with an 11-5-2 record.
“I thought we played a good first half and a good first 10 minutes of the second half, then Jeff seemed like they controlled it for the last 30 minutes,” Vigar said. “It was pretty nerve-wracking on the sideline.”
FLOYD CENTRAL REGIONAL
SEMIFINALS
New Albany 1 (Jenkins), Jeffersonville 0
Seymour 4 (Moore 2, Koester, Bailiff), Madison 0
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