Repeating as sectional champion wasn’t just a cause for celebration for Kokomo’s girls soccer team. It was redemption.
The Kats came full circle Saturday afternoon. After losing their first four games of the season, the Wildkats claimed the Kokomo Sectional championship by crushing rival Logansport 7-0 in the final.
“It feels amazing,” said Kokomo forward Casey Connor, who scored a natural hat trick. “Senior year, we started out so rough. Just coming out and showing everybody that we really are one of the best Kokomo soccer teams to come through here [felt good]. It’s just great because we knew we could do it all along.”
Breanna Allen opened the scoring and finished with two goals for Kokomo, Connor netted three times and the Wildkats (10-8) got strikes from Jordan Parkhurst and Ashli Minor.
For the first 39 minutes, there was no indication the Wildkats would run away with the game. Allen scored in the sixth minute on a soaring drive from 23 yards that was too high for Logan goalie Jordan Graham. But for most of the opening half, it was Logan that applied more pressure, forcing Kokomo goalie Kristen Clason into four saves.
Then, 47 seconds before halftime, Parkhurst popped a close shot over Logan’s defense and into the goal to double Kokomo’s advantage. At that point, the Wildkats smelled blood.
Kokomo moved into the attack again and Madison Waltermath’s sharp pass found Connor in the box. Connor juked past a defender and scored to the far post to put Kokomo up 3-0 at halftime. The two strikes before halftime were crippling to Logansport, which finished the season 9-10.
“I thought we played 33, 34 minutes of pretty darn good soccer,” Logan coach Todd Reiff said. “[Allen’s first goal] was a hell of a shot and it went in high — 1-0, who cares? I thought we were still very much in it. They got that second goal and that wasn’t the one, it was that third goal right at the very end that I just knew it. Right then, you could just feel the wind come completely out of our sails.”
Kokomo ended any doubt when Connor struck again on her squad’s opening rush of the second half. Waltermath again fed the senior forward, who scored from close range just 12 seconds after the start of the second half.
“After we scored in 12 seconds in the second half, I thought that we broke their spirit — hopefully,” Connor said. “You never know, but that’s when I thought, ‘we’ve got this.’”
Connor added her third in the 46th minute on an easy tap-in. Allen scored her second when she blasted to the far post in the 57th minute and Minor closed the scoring with a looping shot from outside the box off a feed from Brittney Hildebrand in the 76th minute.
“They just seemed to back down more [after halftime],” said Kokomo defender Kali Ackison, who shadowed Logan’s main threat Lindsay Rich. “We just kept going because we didn’t want it to be a close game and if they scored, it’d put more pressure on us, so we just kept going at ’em. They played really well too, but we just played more as a team, and as well as we know we can.”
Kokomo got the shutout as Clason totaled eight saves, including a diving stop at the feet of Rich with eight minutes left. By then, Ackison had been relieved of her duty of shadowing Logan’s star midfielder. She’d already done enough.
“Lindsay Rich is a stud and Kali Ackison did a phenomenal job just being annoying,” Kokomo coach Myles Geary said. “That’s what really took them out of their game because she is a goal threat no matter where she is.”
Ackison had played as a flank defender during the regular season meeting, but was sent out to stick with Rich exclusively Saturday.
“She’s really fast so I had to stay real close to her or give her a couple steps sometimes,” Ackison said. “She has a really good touch so I had to stay in front of her. Wherever she was, I had to be. I bet she got tired of me being with her.”
Kokomo advances to play McCutcheon in the Logansport Regional at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The Mavs beat the Kats 3-2 in the regular season.
Sports
Related Photos
Discussion
SOCCER: Kokomo crushes Logansport
- Sports
-
-
Western girls put defensive clamps on West Lafayette
Western opened its postseason by putting on a defensive clinic against host West Lafayette Wednesday night in a Class 3A Sectional opening round game.
-
Rival Berries visit Kokomo
Muncie Central has the North Central Conference boys basketball championship in sight. The Class 3A No. 2-ranked Bearcats are 5-0 in league play with games remaining against second-division squads Anderson and Marion.
-
Black takes spot among Taylor’s elite
Growing up, Mone’y Black always saw herself as a softball player first.
She was Taylor’s go-to player for the large portions of her career on the basketball and volleyball courts, but her first love was the diamond.
-
Kats lose heartbreaker
Kokomo’s girls basketball team executed its game plan to near perfection against host Logansport in the first game of the Class 4A Logansport Sectional Tuesday.
-
Tipton races by Taylor
Over the last two seasons, Tipton’s girls basketball team has been held under 40 points in just three games.
Tuesday’s sectional opponent — Taylor — held the Blue Devils down in two of those games. Tuesday was a different story.
-
It’s tourney time
In the girls basketball regular season, Tipton and Logansport compiled gaudy records and conference championships while Taylor and Kokomo finished with sub-.500 records.
-
What a kick for Hoosier native Weatherford
Indianapolis — While Steve Weatherford celebrated with his teammates in the New York Giants’ locker room after the 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, thoughts inevitably turned to Terre Haute — his hometown.
-
Ice baths can improve your health
Several years ago, I applied to be a participant in the weekly television show “Survivor.” Disappointingly, I was rejected.
-
Wiechmann comes up big in regional
Western senior wrestler Jake Wiechmann had lost twice this season to Kokomo standout Fletcher Miller, and was trailing 3-1 to Miller in the third period of the championship of the 182-pound match at the Peru Regional Saturday when the opportunity for vengeance struck.
-
Wildkat wrestlers move nine onto Ft. Wayne semistate
The Kokomo Wildkats’ bus will need just a little bit more gas than usual next weekend to haul its cargo up to Fort Wayne for Saturday’s individual wrestling semistate at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
- More Sports Headlines
-
White House Attacks Romney on Birth Control
Homs Bombardment Continues, Global Outcry Grows
Mo. Teen Gets Life Sentence for Killing Girl, 9
Lower-hassle Screening to Be Tested at Airports
Raw Video: Dog Rescued From Icy Colo. Water
Helmet Camera Captures Calif. Fire Rescue
Worker Tells 911: Powell 'exploded the House'
Triple Win: Santorum Takes Minn., Mo., Colo.
Injured Marine Inspired by Homecoming
No Rape Charges Against Son of NYPD Commissioner
Egypt's Ruling Generals Play Risky Game With US
Former Komen Exec Defends Funding Cut
Skip the Coffee Cup and Inhale Your Caffeine Fix
Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
Jury Selection for Ex-UVa Athlete Enters 2nd Day
Cab Driver Helps Wis. Family Escape House Fire
Staff Removed at LA School During Abuse Probe
Runaway Goat Leads Police on Wild Chase
