Conklin scores twice, Umbaugh also scores as Argos wins sectional title
Adley on players: ‘I couldn’t be more proud of the girls’
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
CULVER — Argos girls soccer coach Ty Adley was not one to talk about winning a sectional title as a team goal during the season.
He wanted the team to have a more narrow focus. Let’s get better today. Let’s have a good first half and then a good second half. Don’t get ahead of ourselves.
That narrow focus paid off when the team played Manchester in the Class 1A, Sectional 36 final at Culver Saturday.
There was a missed penalty kick, and then they yielded their first goal of the postseason in the second half.
But the focus remained, and after not talking much about winning a sectional, there was not much to do except celebrate winning a sectional after their 3-1 triumph.
Junior Elaina Conklin scored twice and had an assist, and Samantha Umbaugh also scored off a Conklin assist. Freshman Alexa Urednick had two assists.
After neither Wabash nor North Miami generated a shot on frame in Argos’ first two sectional games, Manchester managed four.
Elaina Conklin Avarie Hines Madison Reynolds Peytyn Willis
Aeryn Klose had the goal, drilling a high 30-yard shot that sailed over Argos goalkeeper Peytyn Willis and into the back of the net with 16:43 left. That cut the Argos lead to 2-1.
Klose would get another shot off that Willis saved, and Argos would push the lead back to 3-1 when Urednick found Conklin with a seemingly blind pass that Conklin fired past Manchester goalkeeper Shiann Owens.
The sectional title is the 14th in Argos history – four in the single-class era and 10 in the class era which began in 2011. However, it is their first since they won five consecutive sectional titles from 2018-22.
“It feels amazing,” senior Leah Pizzuto said. “We’ve been waiting on it for four years now. … This team is special because of our bonds that we’ve created. I think that we’ve really come together and worked through all the issues that we’ve ever had.”
Argos celebrated jubilantly in front of the press box as time expired. They then ran through an impromptu tunnel that the Argos cheering section set up. Umbaugh and Hayna Willis received the trophy from Culver athletic director Mike Zehner while Avarie Hines took the game ball, which led to another celebration.
“It feels wonderful, but I couldn’t be more proud of the girls,” Argos third-year coach Ty Adley said. “They gave a wonderful effort. They dug deep. They battled for each other, and I couldn’t ask for more for the girls. So I’m super happy for them and glad they were able to reach tis opportunity.”
Argos improved to 11-5-3. They have gone 9-2 since starting the year 2-3-3. They will host No. 7 Fort Wayne Blackhawk at Eugene Snyder Field at 6 p.m. Wednesday in a regional semifinal.
“It feels amazing,” Conklin said. “I’ve played three years to get here. It feels so good to finally take it home. … We came so far as a team. We started out a little rough, but we just pushed through. We made it here, and we won it.”
Boone Grove and Trinity Academy will meet in the other regional semifinal Wednesday, and the winners will meet at Westview at 2 p.m. this Saturday for the regional title.
Manchester finished 11-6-1. They won seven of their last nine games, but both of the losses were to Argos, including a 4-1 loss on Sept. 10.
The Lady Dragons scored first with 10:37 left in the half. Leah Pizzuto pressured from the midfield and passed to Ava VanDerWeele. VanDerWeele then passed to the middle, which deflected off Manchester’s Jocelyn Young. Conklin sent a quick, one-touch pass to Umbaugh to her right.
Umbaugh dribbled in and got a one-on-one look with Owens. Owens moved to her left to cover the post, and Umbaugh shot to her right and scored.
“It felt like time just slowed down,” Umbaugh said. “I took my touch. I thought I was going to kick it over, and then I kicked it, and it went in, right through all the players. … It was the first goal, so it just felt good. It set the tone for the rest of the game, I feel like. It pumped us up. I wanted to cry a little bit.”
Argos took that 1-0 lead into halftime. They did not score in the first half in their 3-0 semifinal win over North Miami on Wednesday.
“Just being able to bring the passion and the emotion all under control and kind of get that little bit a sense of relief makes a big difference for the girls as they come into it,” Adley said of scoring first. “Especially with a lot of girls not having the chance to come to this game. As much as every game is just about the same, a lot of times they feel just a little bit different. So very excited to see them get that goal in and be able to settle in and be able to find those passes and those opportunities.”
Argos was awarded a penalty kick with 37:22 left after Manchester’s McKayla Dillon knocked down Emma Langfeldt in the box.
But Hayna Willis missed the kick wide to the left.
Less than eight minutes later, Argos extended their lead anyway with a goal at the 29:54 mark.
After Hayna Willis dumped a loss into the box, Young appeared to send a kick towards the goal line.
Urednick hustled it down and centered a pass into the box. Owens tried to catch it on the fly but missed, and both Conklin and Langfeldt converged on the loose ball in front of any empty goal.
Conlin got there first and deposited it into the net to make it 2-0.
Klose’s goal came after a takeaway on a clearing attempt from Emily Pippenger, a long-range parabola that landed in the back left corner of the net.
Klose turned and took a shot that Peytyn Willis gathered in at the 16:16 mark.
Pippenger, Leah Pizzuto, Avarie Hines and Madison Reynolds were among the defenders who kept a watchful eye on players like Klose and Ava Sautter.
“We didn’t change anything,” Adley said of the defensive strategy. “We kept our standard back group and midfielders and didn’t necessarily run anything special but made sure that the girls knew and understood what to expect with the girls coming in and having played them earlier this year and having them have that understanding is beneficial as well.”
Conklin then scored when she slipped behind Brooklynn Grimes and gathered Urednick’s pass and finished to Owens’ left.
“I was seeing that people were in the middle, so I thought if I just passed it right in, somebody would hopefully get it and then shoot it in,” Urednick said.
Urednick was one of those players who gradually adjusted to the speed of the varsity game day by day.
Adley had girls set both individual and team goals. By saying that winning a sectional is a team goal, you “speak it out into existence,” according to Adley. Otherwise, more of the discussion was about getting better.
“It’s not necessarily something we talk about,” Adley said. “One of the things I drilled down especially as we came into the waning portions of the season coming into tournament time was that it’s one day, one game, one half at a time. And getting the girls to live and understand through that motto of hey, we don’t need to worry about the sectional championship or anything along those lines.
“We’ve got a quarterfinal with Wabash, and we need to take care of that game first, one half at a time, and we won each half. We won that one, and we turned around and came back and played a great game with North Miami. … They definitely gave a battle. That’s for sure. But the girls were able to dig just a little bit deeper and come out with a win there. And then it was spending the next two days preparing for what would be the first half today and then working our way through that. Trying to keep sights on what’s in front of you, not what’s down the road.”
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