Luis Ceballos
For the Columbus East boys soccer team, it was all about surviving.
Seymour threw everything at the Olympians in the second half, but the defense held on enough to claim a 2-1 Hoosier Hills Conference victory Thursday night at the Richard Wigh Complex to capture the “O” Cup.
“We played really well in the first half. This week, we battled a lot of sickness and some injuries, and so our depth was a little short,” East coach Sam LaVelle said. “In that second half was a lot of survival, a lot of protecting our goal and our space, and I thought our back line absorbed pressure really well and held them off.”
It was a tale of two halves for the Olympians (2-3, 1-0), but they had a quick spurt toward the end of the first half that produced two goals in two minutes.
The first goal for East came in the 35th minute when Chris Ortega Gonzalez received a pinpoint pass in the box and finished the play to break the scoreless draw. A minute later, it was Luis Ceballos that got the insurance goal for a 2-0 lead right before the break.
“The first half really set us up for success. We had to rely on some young guys tonight, and they were able to hold up, which is a testament to our future,” LaVelle said.
The Owls won shot after shot and corner kick after corner kick in the second half as the Olympian defense made many clearances of the ball. It was only a matter of time before Seymour broke through, and it happened in the 69th minute off of a corner kick that went into the box. The ball was kicked and deflected off several players until the ball the found the net to cut the East lead in half.
The defense of the Olympians held off for the final 10 minutes.
“I hope this sparks us for a good conference run,” LaVelle said. “We’re all pushing for a conference title this year, and I think Seymour is one of the better teams in the conference, so this is a good start for us as we head into conference play.”
