Columbus East’s Boston Ely, in orange from left, Elijah Goodpaster and Gui Silva Coelho compete with a Franklin defender to head a corner kick toward goal during a sectional soccer match at the BCSC Soccer Complex in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
When Columbus East played Franklin on Sept. 12, the Olympians’ Martin Simon Rodriguez scored four goals in a 4-1 East victory.
The teams met on the same field again Tuesday night, and this time, the Grizzly Cubs rarely let Simon Rodriguez touch the ball. Franklin’s Ethan Elsner scored on a free kick in the 77th minute to give the Grizzly Cubs a 1-0 win in the opening round of the Columbus North Sectional.
“We’ve gotten so much better defensively the last couple weeks,” Franklin coach Tony Harris said. “We were working on some things midseason, and we kind of let them counter us all night long (in the earlier matchup). So we knew we had to stop their counter-attack. We did a nice job on (Simon Rodriguez). He’s a tremendous player. We made sure of what we couldn’t get beat with, and we felt like we could defend what else they had.”
East (5-7-3) had the run of play in the first half, outshooting the Grizzly Cubs (13-2-1) 4-1. The Olympians’ Gui Silva Coelho put one off the left post in the 38th minute.
Franklin had most of the opportunities in the second half. East’s August Comer came up with a couple of saves on point-blank shots, and defender Justin Sylva cleared a ball off the goal line after it had bounced over Comer’s head.
In the 77th minute, Elsner lined up for a free kick from the left side, about 25 yards out and put it over the head of Comer into the right side of the net.
“We’d have liked to score more goals,” Harris said. “We had so many chances in the box. But we got the one, and that’s all we needed.”
The Grizzly Cubs finished with an 11-8 shot advantage, putting five shots on goal to three for East. Comer recorded four saves.
“All credit to them,” East coach Josh Gonsior said. “They showed up to play today, and we picked the wrong time to not show up. They played really hard like they wanted to win it, and we kind of sat back and weren’t aggressive and didn’t take the game to them. That was the difference today.
“Sometimes, one of the most difficult things to do is play a team you’ve already beat,” he added. “That mentality has to be different the second time around, and it’s unfortunate that’s how it is, but that’s why we play the game. We didn’t put it all together today, and unfortunately, you do that in the tournament, you go home.”
