LAKEVILLE — Six of the 16 girls soccer teams at the annual South Bend Saint Joseph Invitational were from the South Bend area.
Of those six, only one finished without a loss across the weekend.
That distinction belongs to No. 16 (3A) Northridge, who followed up a 1-1 tie with Valparaiso Friday night with a 1-0 victory over No. 6 (3A) Crown Point Saturday afternoon at Newton Park in Lakeville.
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Eleven ranked teams were in the field. Other Class 3A squads were No. 2 Hamilton Southeastern, No. 8 Penn, No. 9 Fort Wayne Carroll, No. 10 Evansville Memorial, No. 15 Chesterton, No. 18 Homestead and No. 20 Munster. A pair of top-five Class 2A teams were also there in No. 3 Mishawaka Marian and No. 4 Bellmont.
“I think we consider ourselves as one of these teams that’s in the top, where other people should be looking at us like, ‘What do I do to get past them?’” Northridge coach Chris Malott said. “It’s not just us looking at other people. I think we should be in that talk, and I think this weekend showed we can hang with some of the top teams in the state right now.”
Saint Joseph, Marian, Goshen bounce back from Friday losses
Saint Joseph and Marian had bad tastes in their mouths after Friday night’s opening games. The host Huskies lost to Lake Central, 2-0, while the Knights saw an early lead dissolve into a 4-1 defeat to Carroll.
Both removed the sour taste out of its mouth Saturday with impressive victories. Saint Joseph beat Carroll, 2-0, while Marian took care of Bellmont, 3-0.
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The Huskies’ first goal came from freshman Lily Gerard, the first of her high school career. It’s a freshman class that Saint Joseph (1-2) coach Phil DePauw is excited about.
“This freshman class in general is very strong,” DePauw said. “I’m super excited about where we’re headed with this group. We haven’t had this deep of a group in quite a while. Lily, along with the other freshmen, just give great work rate.”
Marian (3-1) bounced back Saturday with a resounding performance against Bellmont, limiting the Braves’ chances throughout the match. Several new faces played quality minutes against Bellmont as the Knights deal with some early season injury issues on defense.
“A couple of freshmen, Olivia Micola and Addie Primrose — I’m excited for their growth,” Marian coach Henry Vu said. “Hopefully we get our injured players back soon, we build our backline and get our depth ready to go once we enter NIC play.”
Also rebounding from a Friday night loss was Goshen. After they dropped a 1-0 contest against Munster, the RedHawks knocked off Lake Central, 1-0, Saturday morning. Senior Kennedy Yordy scored the lone goal for Goshen in the win, which improves its record to 2-2.
Soccer gods cruel to Penn
In an alternate universe, Penn might’ve gone 2-0 on the weekend.
Alas, they have to settle for an 0-1-1 mark. They were tied at halftime with Hamilton Southeastern Friday before two second-half tallies led the Royals to a 3-1 win. The Kingsmen were then closing in on a victory against Valparaiso Saturday when the Vikings scored in the final 30 seconds, resulting in a 2-2 tie.
Penn (1-1-1) coach Jeff Hart noted he played 24 varsity players at some point over the two games, getting his team experience against major competition.
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“We’ve got a lot to work on, but we have a lot of young talent,” Hart said. “It’s very exciting. We have a lot of depth, but now we have to figure out where all the pieces fit. That’s what we use this weekend for because you can’t hide from the pressure these teams put on you. … We think we’re pretty good, but the schedule, at the end of the day, will kind of dictate some of that.”
Young Adams team continuing to grow
South Bend Adams had an 0-1-1 showing, playing to a scoreless draw with Bellmont Friday night before dropping a 3-1 decision to Munster Saturday.
It’s almost an entirely new roster for head coach Ryan Yazel, as the Eagles only have three seniors. Getting a chance to play against two strong programs in a 24-hour span will only help his team, in Yazel’s mind.
“We fought hard to the end,” Yazel said. “We’re growing into our game and the type of game we want to play. I couldn’t be prouder of the girls. … We’re just going to continue to find ourselves. Who are we as John Adams girls soccer and make sure we develop our play style around that.”
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: 'You can't hide:' Takeaways from South Bend area girls soccer teams at Saint Joseph Invitational
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