Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 2, 2021

New Palestines Elliott Canova has his eye on the ball after a corner kick at New Palestine High School on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2021. Canova headed the ball away from Pendletons Warner Sims. (Richard Sitler/Daily Reporter)

NEW PALESTINE A year ago, his first as the teams head coach, New Palestines Brett Canova said his club was going into the season focusing more on team culture than wins and losses.

He was just being realistic about a young Dragon team coming off a 3-13-1 campaign.

That was exactly the case in 2020, New Palestine finished 2-13 and 1-6, and in last place for the second straight year, in the Hoosier Heritage Conference.

Fast forward to Thursday night at New Palestine High School.

Sophomore Elliott Canova one of two sons of the coach playing on the team scored a goal five minutes into the second half, his second of the night, to give the Dragons a 2-1 lead over Pendleton Heights. It was a lead they held the rest of the game on their way to a share of the HHC title.

Hard work and dedication, Elliott Canova said on the teams turnaround. I think a lot of teams thought, Its just New Pal. Well run em out. We came out and outworked them. We worked as a team and never lost hope. Weve went from worst to first. What can I say, thats pretty cool.

The sophomore scored both Dragon goals. He evened the match 1-1 midway through the first half.

On a breakaway, assisted by sophomore Andon Colclazier who had just entered the game, Canova scored with 20:05 remaining in the opening period.

Senior Ethan Windham got the assist on the second-half, game-winner. He was one of seven recognized on senior night, in a ceremony prior to the varsity kickoff.

Along with Windham, one of the clubs tri-captains, the group included captains Samuel Bacon and Garrett Canova as well as Zachery Smith, Eli Kleine, Josh Lambdin and Juan Camacho.

Coach Canova said that senior group was the key to his club going from cellar dwellers to co-conference champions.

Its our seniors, Brett Canova said. Not that the others have been bad, but they have been the class of the program since they got here. Theyve led the way. Their work ethic and everything theyre doing, I appreciate it. I love it.

The young guys are following suit.

New Palestine will finish conference play 5-2, sharing the title with three other teams, including Pendleton Heights, Yorktown and Greenfield-Central. The Cougars got a part of the crown with a win Thursday over New Castle.

We won the ball in the midfield and I looked up and saw Elliott making a good run and he seemed to be open, Windham said of the game-winner.

At practice (the seniors) try to push everyone to be the best they can be, he added on how the team has shown such a huge improvement. Im proud of everybody from the freshmen to the JV, who has improved as well, not just the varsity. Its a team effort of dedication.

The Dragons are 7-9 overall.

Pendleton Heights came in with a chance to be outright conference champions.

Early it appeared they had no plan on sharing the title.

Less than three minutes into the game the tandem of juniors Cole Bubalo and Kam Kail, as they have multiple times this season, hooked up to get the visitors on the board.

At the 37:33 mark, Kail scored his 15th goal of the season, assisted by Bubalo, his ninth helper.

They would have other opportunities but could not get anything by New Palestine goalkeeper Blake Bobrow.

The boys did what we asked them to. We wanted them to come out strong. We knew it was their Senior Night, Pendleton Heights coach Kyle Davy said. We put a goal away in the first five minutes and were hoping to take over the game. Our guys did a great job of coming out strong, but then we just got too comfortable and sat back and let them control the game.

Weve given up goals this year and weve never folded, coach Canova said. Weve battled and battled and battled. We calmed down. The game changed and we went forward and when we got opportunities we sealed them.

A four-way tie for the conference championship showed how close the HHC has been all season.

Coming into Thursdays matchup, the Arabians had won their last two games over Mt. Vernon and Shelbyville on penalty kicks. Their lone loss, prior to losing to the Dragons, was against Yorktown.

New Pals losses were to Yorktown and Greenfield-Central. G-C dropped contests to Pendleton Heights and Yorktown, while the Tigers losses were to Mt. Vernon and Delta.

The Marauders finished just one game behind the co-champions with a 4-3 HHC record.

Shelbyville was the defending HHC champion. New Palestine is champion for the first time since 2015. Pendleton Heights won the league in 2014. Greenfield-Central won the HHC in 2019.

I never thought coming into this season we would win a championship, coach Canova said. Midway through the season all of a sudden we started playing well. The Mt. Vernon game we put it together. The boys have just been resilient and smart. They play with heart. Its senior night and they got the job done.

See the rest here:

Worst to First: Dragons soccer team gets share of HHC title - Greenfield Daily Reporter

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