Crawfordsville Athenians | Archive | October, 2008

The Paper photo by Lori Poteet Crawfordsville senior Chrissy Stevens (center) and junior Haley Grundy (right) each attempt a dig Thursday night. The Paper photo by Lori Poteet Crawfordsville junior Kylie Justus collides with Sandy Williams in Thursday night’s IHSAA first-round sectional match.

Volleyball Thursday IHSAA North Montgomery Sectional At North Montgomery HS First round Game 2 Western Boone 3, Crawfordsville 0 Crawfordsville 11 22 18 Western Boone 25 25 25 Record: Crawfordsville 12-18 Crawfordsville statistics Elizabeth Zachary – 15 assists, 9 digs, 3 aces, 1 **** Kylie Justus – 9 digs, 4 kills Lindsay Leech – 4 kills, 1 block, 1 dig Haley Grundy – 12 digs, 4 kills Chrissy Stevens – 4 kills, 4 digs Sandy Williams – 4 digs Kelsey Hungerford – 3 digs, 2 kills

Reprintd coutesy of:
The Paper of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com

By John Groth
Sports Editor

LINDEN – Senior Chrissy Stevens let out her emotions.

She expected Crawfordsville High School’s volleyball team to recover.

She
remembered the last time Crawfordsville played Sagamore Athletic
Conference rival Western Boone and how the Athenians rallied before
falling in five games.

But in Thursday’s Indiana High School
Athletic Association North Montgomery Sectional first-round match, they
never sustained any comeback momentum.

Western Boone defeated
conference rival Crawfordsville 25-11, 25-22, 25-18 in Thursday’s IHSAA
North Montgomery sectional first-round game, ending Stevens and fellow
senior Elizabeth Zachary’s high school careers.

“It’s
upsetting because I don’t think people ever got to see our true team
and what we’re capable of doing,” said Stevens, who had four kills and
four digs. “I’m excited for the underclassmen and what they’ve got to
show they can do next year.”

Western Boone advances to play
conference rival North Montgomery in Saturday’s 11 a.m. opening
sectional semifinal. North Montgomery defeated conference rival
Danville 25-9, 25-8, 25-7 in Thursday’s other first-round game.

Conference
foes Lebanon and Southmont will meet in Saturday’s second semifinal
with the winners of the two games to meet at 7 p.m. in the
championship.

Crawfordsville (12-18) had won its final two
regular-season games heading into Thursday’s first-round sectional
match. But the Athenians couldn’t contend with the Stars’ outside
hitters and shots.

Western Boone took control of the first two
games thanks to two five-point runs. They went from a 7-4 to 12-4 lead
in the first game and a 13-11 to 18-11 lead in the second game with the
help their outside hitters’ kills and returns.

The Stars’ won the first game convincingly, but the Athenians came back in the second.

After
being down by as many as seven points (18-11), Crawfordsville tied the
game at 20-20 before Stars’ junior Sara Soloman had two key kills and
Western Boone scored five of the final seven points to pull out the
second game, too.

Crawfordsville trailed only 17-15 in the third game before the Stars won seven straight points to put that game out of reach.

“The
girls came out and battled,” Crawfordsville coach Kelly Johnson said.
“They got the lead [in the second and third games]. But it was hard to
stop the strength of their outside swing.”

Zachary led the
Athenians with 15 assists and added nine digs and three aces, while
junior Haley Grundy recorded a team-high 12 digs.

Junior Kylie Justus had nine digs and four kills.

Zachary hoped she and Stevens left a good impression on the rest of the team for next season.

They helped Crawfordsville win its first volleyball sectional championship in 12 years last year.

“We
taught them to be good leaders, have a positive attitude and get mad
when you need to get mad – but don’t take it out on anybody,” she said.
“This team is a lot different. But they’re a lot of fun. They made my
senior year good.”

The Paper photo by Lori Poteet Crawfordsville senior Jordan Boykin gets brought down by a Southmont’s Scott Paris and Dennie Brown. The Paper photo by Lori Poteet Southmont assistant coach Jon Sparks and junior quarterback Logan Petry celebrate the Mounties’ win.

Football Friday At Crawfordsville Southmont 21, Crawfordsville 14 Southmont 7 0 7 7 – 21 Crawfordsville 7 0 7 0 – 14 Scoring First quarter: S – Logan Petry 27 run (Curtis Rose kick), 10:40; C – Craig Fairley 4 run (Matt Mummert kick), 3:51 Third quarter: C – Brett McKinney 11 pass to Jordan Boykin (Matt Mummert kick), 8:17; S – Micah Hatch 1 run (Curtis Rose kick), 1:37 Fourth quarter: S – Logan Petry 1 run (Curtis Rose kick), 3:14 Team statistics S C First downs 13 15 Rushes (yds.) 47-177 32-73 Passing 6-9-62-0-1 17-23-173-0-2 Total yards 239 246 Fumbles (lost) 1-0 0-0 Penalties (yds.) 7-56 4-37 Records: Southmont 4-5 (3-4 SAC), Crawfordsville 4-5 (4-3 SAC) Individual statistics Rushing: Southmont – Logan Petry 19-71, Tanner Hill 9-45, Micah Hatch 11-40, Jordan Burkett 8-21. Crawfordsville – Craig Fairley 20-70, Adrian Rankin 7-26, Jordan Boykin 1-4, Brett McKinney 4-(-27). Passing: Southmont – Logan Petry 6-9-62-0-1. Crawfordsville – Brett McKinney 17-23-162-0-2. Receiving: Southmont – Micah Hatch 3-46, Jordan Burkett 2-10, Scott Paris 1-6. Crawfordsville – Brett Linn 6-89, Jordan Boykin 10-80, Adrian Rankin 1-4.

Reprinted Courtesy of:
The Paper of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com

By John Groth
Sports Editor

Desson Hannum’s guiding Southmont High School football program on a history-making run.

They’re running all over Sagamore Athletic Conference opponents, making ****** defensive stops and earning plenty of respect.

After
Friday night’s Montgomery County and conference clash against
Crawfordsville, they sent a message. They’re not the doormat anymore.

Southmont
junior quarterback Logan Petry scored on a one-yard quarterback sneak
with under four minutes remaining and junior Jordan Burkett had two
late fourth-quarter interceptions to seal the Mounties’ 21-14 win over
county- and conference rival Crawfordsville.

“We’re trying to
change some of our history here,” said Hannum, the Mounties’
second-year coach who won his first county game in four tries. “People
used to look at us in the past and said ‘we’re going to come in here
and beat Southmont.’ We’re not like that anymore.”

Southmont
(4-5, 3-4 SAC) closed its regular season on a three-game winning streak
– defeating conference rivals Frankfort, Western Boone and
Crawfordsville – and now has tons of momentum heading into next
Friday’s Indiana High School Athletic Association sectional game
against Greencastle. It’s the most wins for the Mounties since they had
six in 2003.

They’ve knocked off the Athenians two of the past three years.

In 2006, Southmont upset Crawfordsville to earn its lone victory that year. In 2008, it’s turned into a different story.

It’s
the Mounties looking like the headstrong time heading IHSAA sectional
play and the Athenians (4-5, 4-3 SAC) are the ones on the slide –
losing their final three regular-season games and four out of their
last five.

Southmont controlled the ground game – rushing for 177 yards on 47 carries – and limited Crawfordsville’s rushing attack.

The
Mounties slowed down junior running back Craig Fairley (20 rushes, 70
yards) and held him to his lowest yardage total all season.

Although
senior quarterback Brett McKinney completed 17-of-23 passes for 162
yards and a touchdown against Southmont’s defense, they put pressure
and blitzed him up the middle all night long – forcing him to throw
mainly short passes and two costly interceptions in the final three
minutes.

“Their middle blitzes affected our running game and
passing protection,” Crawfordsville coach Rex Ryker said. “Simple
inside blitzes won the game for Southmont.”

Petry scored two touchdowns – including on a 27-yard run on the third play of the game – and rushed for 71 yards.

But his most important play came on the final drive.

Tied
at 14-14 midway through the fourth quarter, he along with junior
running backs Tanner Hill and Burkett and sophomore running back Micah
Hatch, led the Mounties on an 11-play, 70-yard scoring drive. They ate
up rushing yards, picking up five to six a carry, and clock.

Petry
capped it with a one-yard plunge up the middle and Southmont had a
21-14 lead with 3:14 to play. Then, the Mounties’ defense created
havoc. They pressured McKinney on a third-and-five at the
Crawfordsville 38 and he lofted a pass into Burkett’s hands.

After Southmont was forced to punt, Crawfordsville had one last chance with under 50 seconds remaining.

Two
plays later, senior wide receiver Jordan Boykin tipped up McKinney’s
pass and it ended up flying into a waiting Burkett to close out the win.

“I
was in the right spot at the right time,” Burkett said. “Before the
second half I was nervous. I couldn’t get [the nerves] out. You figure
your nerves would be gone after the first half. It’s extremely awesome
to beat a county rival like that. Winning our past three games, we feel
real confident going into sectionals.”

Hannum agreed – and he finally has the Mounties believing, too.

“We
need the confidence more than anything,” he said. “Winning three weeks
in a row gives us confidence and validity to what we’re doing. I
thought we were the aggressive team.”

As for Crawfordsville, Ryker hopes he can fix the Athenians’ woes before their sectional game at West Vigo next week.

“We’ve
had two emotional weeks and come out on the bottom of the bottom,” he
said. “We have to make sure we pull together and not get the loser
mentality of blaming each othe

The Paper file photo Crawfordsville High School sophomore Matt Mummert had a goal in the Athenians’ regional semifinal win.

Boys soccer IHSAA West Lafayette Regional Semifinals Game 1 West Lafayette Harrison 3, McCutcheon 0 Records: West Lafayette Harrison 12-6-1, McCutcheon 6-9-2 Game 2 Crawfordsville 3, Tipton 1 Crawfordsville 2 1 – 3 Tipton 1 0 – 1 Goals scored: Matt Mummert C; Austin Evans C; Tyler Whittington C; Weston Wood T Assists: Klajdi Osmani C Shots on goal: Crawfordsville 10, Tipton 5 Saves: Crawfordsville 2, Tipton 7 Records: Crawfordsville 13-5-1, Tipton 12-5-1

Reprinted Courtesy of:
The Paper of Montgomery County
www.thepaper24-7.com

By John Groth
Sports Editor

WEST LAFAYETTE – Klajdi Osmani loves those corner kicks.

So does Austin Evans.

They’ve developed quite the postseason connection.

Whenever
the Crawfordsville High School boys soccer team has needed a
game-clinching goal, those two Athenians have hooked up for the scoring
combination.

And they did again Wednesday night – knocking out Tipton for the second consecutive year.

Sophomore
Matt Mummert and Evans each scored goals off corner kicks and senior
Tyler Whittington added a late second-half goal as Crawfordsville
ousted Tipton 3-1 in Wednesday’s Indiana High School Athletic
Association West Lafayette Regional second semifinal.

“We were
trying to whip [corner kicks] into the box some and get on it,” said
Osmani, who connected on an assist off a corner kick with Evans for the
second-straight postseason game. “Matt’s got size. Austin just crawls
in there. We try to put it in where their goalie can’t get it and we
can. Austin has been amazing.”

Crawfordsville (13-5-1) advances
to play West Lafayette Harrison (12-6-1) in Saturday’s 7 p.m. West
Lafayette Regional championship match.

It’s a rematch of last year’s West Lafayette Regional championship, which Crawfordsville won 2-1 (3-2 in penalty kicks).

West Lafayette Harrison defeated McCutcheon 3-0 in the first regional semifinal.

Despite
playing in the pouring rain, the Athenians didn’t let the wet weather
affect their game. Instead, they passed past the Blue Devils (12-5-1).

With the game tied at 1-1 and less than 15 minutes left in the first half, Evans put Crawfordsville back into the lead.

Osmani
launched an arcing corner kick off the right side to Evans, who
redirected the ball into the net and past Tipton senior goalie Brock
Fulk.

It was Evans’ third postseason goal in four games.

“We’ve
been working on set pieces a lot recently,” Crawfordsville coach Jim
Kochert said. “They know what to do, where to go and where to run. We
knew Tipton transitioned the ball to the sides and then moved to the
middle and would send people over the top. They’re very good at it. Our
guys executed [offensively and defensively] really well.”

Whittington gave the Athenians the extra cushion in the second half, scoring only 1:17 into the half.

He now has two goals in the Athenians’ two West Lafayette Regional semifinal games against Tipton – both wins.

Whittington had missed a shot with a wide open net at the 5:55 mark of the first half and vowed to score in the second half.

“I knew I was getting one after that one [miss],” he said. “I told myself I was going to score this game.”

Now
the Athenians will face West Lafayette Harrison for another regional
championship title. They expect a very physical game like last year and
another close contest.

Kochert doesn’t know what to do to prepare for the Raiders, but he’ll get to work today.

“We
watched the second half of the West Lafayette Harrison [McCutcheon]
game,” he said. “They move the ball and control the ball well. They’re
quick and several of their guys club ball year round. It will be
similar to last year.”