Senior Brooke Roa embraces classmate and friend Brenin Knight following NorthWood’s 1-0 regional semifinal loss to Culver Academy. InkFree Photo provided by Chris Knight.

By Keith Knepp
InkFreeNews

PLYMOUTH — Soccer is infamous for low scoring matches. For some sports fans, that’s a negative. For others, it’s what makes the game so dramatic. During a match, sometimes one might as well be 101, especially when you’re stuck on zero.

In the course of its strange and tumultuous 2020 season, the NorthWood girls soccer team lost six games. Take out a mid-season non-conference match with John Glenn that the Panthers dropped 6-1, the team lost the other five matches by a grand total of five goals. In fact, its only three losses in the incredibly tough Northern Lakes Conference came by the razor-thin margin of 1-0 to Warsaw, Northridge and Concord.

For the third time in four years, NorthWood qualified for the sweet sixteen of Indiana soccer by winning a sectional championship in the 2A class. This year’s regional semifinal opponent was the same as it was in 2018, the Lady Eagles from Culver Academy.

When the final whistle blew on Saturday morning and the Panther faithful looked at the scoreboard, it read the same as it did two years ago and the same as it did to the aforementioned NLC teams: Them 1, Us 0.

The Lady Panthers played with fire throughout most of the first 20 minutes of Saturday’s match. They seemed content to rely on their stellar defense and their all-conference goalie, Lili Lomeli, with the hope of finding a counterattack that would allow them to find a quick goal.

Lomeli stopped several Eagle shots in those first 20 minutes before Culver Academy finally got one past her. The goal came after a questionable foul called against NorthWood from 40 yards out. On the ensuing free kick, Culver executed a short pass to the right side of the 18 that the receiver was able to turn and fire across the goal box into the bottom left corner of the Panther net.

Following the goal, the NorthWood offense did seem to come to life. The Panthers’ best opportunity came shortly afterward when sophomore Caitlin Knepp found herself behind enemy lines inside the Eagle goal box with the ball on her left foot. Her right plant foot appeared to slip as she drew back to fire and the ensuing kick sailed just over the crossbar to keep the NorthWood side of the scoreboard quiet and unmoved.

In the second half, NorthWood came out more aggressive on its offensive end, stringing together passes and putting pressure on the Eagles defensive line and goalie that they hadn’t seen in a sustained fashion during the first 40 minutes. As several scoring opportunities went for naught, NorthWood eventually fell back into a defensive survival mode while Culver was content to run out the clock on both the game and the Panthers’ season.

In the championship match Saturday evening, Culver Academy would go on to beat West Lafayette to advance to the semistate round where they will face Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger next Saturday.

NorthWood ended its 2020 campaign 8-6-3. The program said goodbye to Lomeli and fellow senior starters Brooke Roa and Brenin Knight, along with reserve seniors Lydia Schmitt and Kelsi Blucker. They also found out that this would be the last season for junior Emma Martz, who announced earlier in the week that she would be graduating early to enroll at Bethel University and joining the Pilot women’s soccer team next fall.

The team will return several starters in 2021, including current juniors Lizzie Hilderbrant, Morgan Jenkins, Abi Thornton and Fatima Ghaffar; sophomores Caitlin Knepp and Ari Topping; and freshmen Callie Johnson and Joslyn Miller. Reserves who saw time during the regional game and are expected to return include sophomores Carly Mast, Eva Sloat and Abby Miller, as well as freshman Yareli Castro.