Adley ‘proud,’ but Argos girls soccer’s season ends with loss to FW Blackhawk
H. Willis scores for Lady Dragons
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
ARGOS — The Class 1A regional semifinal between Fort Wayne Blackhawk and host Argos at Eugene Snyder Field Wednesday was a matchup of traditional girls soccer powers.
Fort Wayne Blackhawk was coming off their sixth sectional title in the last 10 years. Argos had won their sixth sectional title in the last nine years.
Ultimately, the team from the Summit City got one step closer to the summit of the regional in winning 2-1.
Shalom Opliger, a speedy, skillful junior who came in with a team-leading 24 goals, scored both Lady Brave goals.
Hayna Willis scored off an Avery Binfet assist for Argos (11-6-3).
Fort Wayne Blackhawk, ranked No. 7, improved to 15-2-3 and will next play No. 11 Trinity Academy in the Westview regional final at 2 p.m. Saturday. Trinity Academy eliminated Boone Grove 3-2 in the other regional semifinal.
Argos coach Ty Adley praised his team’s defensive effort and sophomore goalkeeper Peytyn Willis.
“I thought we did extremely well creating a lot of simple shots, if you will, allowing Peytyn to be able to get the body behind the ball and to be able to stop a lot of shots,” Adley said. “She also made some incredible saves as well. Having a couple girls on the outside with some extreme speed and trying to match those up for those one-on-one matchups as much as we could helped limit a lot of their goal-scoring potential. … I’m very, very proud of the girls.”
Fort Wayne Blackhawk had a 10-3 advantage in shots on goal and 9-0 edge in corner kicks.
All the goals were scored in a 4:39 span of the first half.
Opliger’s first goal started on a scramble after a corner kick. Fort Wayne Blackhawk’s Elena Leininger settled it with her knee and sent it right to freshman Anna Jehl, who shot back into the 18. Argos’ Leah Pizzuto deflected it back to Charlotte Helmuth, whose pass deflected off Pizzuto for a second time but wound up on Opliger’s foot.
Opliger beat Argos goalkeeper Peytyn Willis to her left for a 1-0 lead at the 14:00 mark.
Argos’ run of play for the equalizer started with a Peytyn Willis save. She punted past midfield, and Alexa Urednick advanced a one-touch pass that deflected off Fort Wayne Blackhawk defender Kinley Zimmerman and right onto Hayna Willis’ foot, who then deflected it to Binfet.
Binfet then took two steps and passed back to Hayna Willis to her right.
Hayna Willis then poked a shot with the outside of her right foot just inside the right post and past goalkeeper Makenna Grorud.
The game was tied.
Fort Wayne Blackhawk retook the lead with 9:21 left in the half when Leininger sent a pass from midfield to the left sideline to Opliger. Argos defender Madison Reynolds tried to hem Opliger along the sideline, but she cut back with her nifty ballhandling and lofted a shot that ticked off the outstretched Peytyn Willis and into the back of the net.
“She’s a phenomenal player,” Adley said of Opliger. “Excellent ballhandler. She’s definitely got a solid career and capability and skill set. Their team does an exceptional job on working to get girls open, being able to pass the ball around, so it definitely makes things difficult when you’ve got that kind of control.”
Argos would get only one more shot on goal over the final 50 minutes. Pizzuto took it with 1:50 left in the game after a Hayna Willis pass on a direct kick after Fort Wayne Blackhawk was called for a hand ball.
Grorud saved it on one hop.
“There’s definitely no drop-off on their team,” Adley said. “They do exceptionally well predicting where balls are going to go to be able to be in the right position and then having just very well-weighted passes makes a huge difference.”
Elaina Conklin, who scored two goals in Argos’ 3-1 win over Manchester in the sectional final Saturday and who leads the team with 10 goals for the season, did not play. She was “unavailable” and “out of town,” according to Adley.
The graduating seniors included Pizzuto, Hayna Willis, Elliana Brown, Avarie Hines, Haley Shafer, Samantha Umbaugh, Ava VanDerWeele and Hazel Hanselman.
“Definitely going to miss the seniors,” Adley said. “It’s an extremely excellent group. Love them to death. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to coach them since U10 (10-and-under travel ball). So it’s a little bittersweet tonight where that final door closes on their career here at Argos for girls soccer.
“So I’m really going to miss a lot of them. Wonderful kids. I couldn’t ask for better. But I’m excited to see these girls step up and begin to fill those shoes, and several of the girls we’ve got coming in that are eighth-graders this year, excited to see them come spring and then hit the ground running come next year.”
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