Columbus North’s Rachel Fulp (14) and Avery Baker (2) celebrate after Fulp scored a goal during Tuesday’s Columbus East Sectional match against Whiteland at BCSC Soccer Complex in Columbus.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Columbus North came out firing for its girls soccer sectional opener on Tuesday night.
The Class 3A No. 19 Bull Dogs peppered Whiteland goalkeeper Addison Emberton with four point-blank shots in the first 25 minutes, only to see Emberton turn each of them away. But North finally broke through with a goal from sophomore Rachel Fulp in the 26th minute and held on from there for a 1-0 win in the opening round of the Columbus East Sectional.
“I just think it was a great pass from Rachel Merritt, and it helped us to slow the game down and to play with more confidence,” Fulp said. “I think we played hard. We tried to come in with the most intensity that we could, knowing that it was our first game and that we wanted to play Center Grove. So I think we came out hard, and I think we played well.”
The Bull Dogs (13-2-1) will play 3A No. 15 Center Grove (11-4-3) in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday. Columbus East and Franklin will meet in the second semifinal. The sectional final is at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The win avenges a 1-0 loss to Whiteland in last year’s sectional, which was played at Whiteland.
“Whiteland is a very well coached team,” North coach David Young said. “Whiteland has a ton of nice players. I felt like our players were locked in from Minute 1. They knew what they wanted to do, they remembered last year and they didn’t want that moment to occur again. It was probably the most focused that our girls have been this season.”
The Bull Dogs outshot the Warriors (10-4-1) 20-3, putting 10 shots on goal to one for Whiteland. Emberton finished with nine saves.
“She kept us in the game,” Whiteland coach Nick Magdalinos said. “We didn’t come out really firing on all cylinders. Then, we kind of got into a little it of a flow. We just played from behind and couldn’t catch up. We kept trying different things, and we just couldn’t find something that was clicking tonight, and that made it hard on us. They did a good job of taking away our strengths.”
The shutout was the 14th in the past 15 games for North since a 3-1 loss at Center Grove to open the season.
“Both teams are different,” Young said. “It’s been seven or eight weeks since we faced them. Both teams are completely different, and we’re both now 1-0 in the postseason.”
Center Grove advanced with a 3-0 win against Greenwood in Tuesday’s opener.
“We’ve been working hard all season,” Fulp said. “I’m sure they have been, too, so we’ll just see how it goes. But we’re going to train hard (Wednesday), and hopefully we can come out and get the win.”
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