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Argos, Culver to meet in top 20 battle
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Both the Rochester and Tippecanoe Valley girls soccer teams drew top 20 foes for their sectional openers, according to the IHSAA draw released Sunday.
Meanwhile, top 20 foes Argos and Culver will also meet.
Here is a sectional outlook for the four RTC area teams.
Rochester, Argos, Culver
Rochester is winless on the season going into its final two regular season games against Northwestern on Tuesday and Twin Lakes on Thursday.
Then they will have to face No. 9 Trinity Greenlawn in a Class 1A, Sectional 35 quarterfinal at Argos on Oct. 3.
Rochester suffered a 9-0 loss to Trinity Greenlawn at the Brent Blacketor Memorial Sports Complex on Aug. 26 in their regular season meeting. Rochester added Trinity Greenlawn to their regular season schedule last year and lost 8-0 in South Bend.
Trinity Greenlawn won their first sectional title in school history in 2021. Rochester won sectional games in 2018 over Culver, 2019 over North Miami and 2020 over North Miami, but they have not won a sectional game since.
The Trinity Greenlawn-Rochester winner will play the winner of the Argos-Culver game in the semifinals on Oct. 5.
Culver is No. 18, and Argos is No. 19 in this week’s coaches poll. Argos has merited poll respect despite a 5-8-1 record. Culver is 10-2-1, losing only to Bremen and Jimtown.
Argos has won 13 sectional titles in school history, and they are the five-time defending sectional champion. Argos beat Culver 8-0 in the 2021 sectional semifinals at Argos. Argos also eliminated Culver in the 2016 and 2020 sectionals in the multi-class era.
Culver has scored one goal in those three games combined.
The game could come down to whether Argos’ defense can stop the Culver duo of Giselle Villegas and Kassidy Banks. Villegas has 38 goals on the season, and Banks has added 23.
In the other half of the draw, Bremen and LaVille received byes and will meet each other in the semifinals.
Bremen is 9-4-1 and ranked No. 17 while LaVille is unranked, but one of Bremen’s losses was a 2-1 defeat to LaVille on Aug. 17.
The sectional final is set for 7 p.m. Oct. 7 at Eugene Snyder Field.
Tippecanoe Valley
In search of their first sectional game win in the three-year history of the program, Valley will play No.7 Fort Wayne Dwenger in a Class 2A, Sectional 22 semifinal at Leo on Oct. 5.
Valley has three wins this season under first-year coach Tricia Sederholm, equaling the total from the previous two seasons combined.
Fort Wayne Dwegner is 8-3-2, and they have allowed only one goal in their last four games combined.
The Valley-Fort Wayne Dwenger winner will play in the sectional final at 7 p.m. Oct. 7.
In the opposite half of the bracket, No. 5 Leo received a bye and will meet the Fort Wayne Concordia-Culver Academy winner in the semifinals.
Leo is the defending semistate champion. Leo and Fort Wayne Dwenger played to a 0-0 tie Thursday.
