Cougars, Athenians play out 2-2 draw in final non-conference meeting

BAINBRIDGE — In a match up of future Monon Conference opponents, North Putnam and Crawfordsville battled to a 2-2 tie in boys soccer Thursday night.

The game turned out to be a game of two halves. In the first half, Crawfordsville controlled the pace of play. While North Putnam tried to build the offense up through connecting passing, the Athenians looked to attack quickly with the long balls.

Crawfordsville outshot the Cougars in the first half and had a couple of real good chances, but Cougar goalie Mikey Ali denied them with some great saves. It remained scoreless at the break.

In the second half, the game took on a different tone. The game became more physical. The Athenians had a couple of very skilled and strong players. The Cougars started matching their intensity and created opportunities.

Crawfordsville struck first at 38:50 when Elmer Perez broke loose on a long through ball to put them up 1-0.

The Cougars answered eight minutes later. A long goal kick took a fortuitous bounce and Isaac Polley was able to outrace the goalie and put it in the left corner to even the match.

It didn’t take long for Crawfordsville to counter. Carlos Guitierrez sent a corner kick across and Jaziel Gil-Herrera timed it perfectly and sent the header into the net.

Just over a minute later, North earned a penalty kick from a foul in the box. Brayden Neureiter took the shot and Alec Saidian made the save, but did not control the rebound and Neureiter put it away to tie it back up.

The last twenty minutes the teams went head to head and every possession was challenged. No one was able to make a final connection and being a non conference game it would end in a tie.

“I thought we played well. (Crawfordsville) is a very technical team. We didn’t have many chances, but we took advantage of them.” Cougar coach Kyle Morgan said.

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