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The Norwell Knights soccer teams dealt the Columbia City Eagles a double defeat Monday night.
At the Knights’ Courtyard, the Norwell boys closed out their regular season slate with a 2-0 victory over the Eagles.
Then over at Columbia City, the Lady Knights rallied and scored four second-half goals to conquer the Lady Eagles 6-3.
Both matches were Northeast Hoosier Conference affairs and the Norwell boys avoided a rare goose egg by finishing 1-6 in the conference with their shutout.
Now the Knights will head into IHSAA tournament play with a 4-10-1 record. They will take on the New Haven Bulldogs on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Bellmont sectional at Decatur.
New Haven beat Norwell earlier 2-0 at the Courtyard.
“We’ve improved a great deal since then,” said Norwell coach Jeremy Steele.
It was a big win for the Knights who celebrated the final appearance of 10 seniors at the Courtyard. Next year the Knights will be playing matches on their new soccer-only field.
The Knights and Eagles were deadlocked in a scoreless contest for over 53 minutes until senior Zach Pearson broke the ice with a penalty kick goal at 13:23 of the second half.
Over six minutes later, the Knights scored an insurance goal by senior Blair Williams on a pass from senior Bill Denney.
Senior goalkeeper Adam Harris made five saves to record the shutout.
Other seniors recognized before the match were Tyler Van Meter, Austin Morris, Nathan Hartman, Craig Wolfe, Kory Faus, Talal Maree and manager Logan Souder.
In the boys junior varsity match, the Knights and Eagles played to a 1-1 tie.
Justin Moser gave Norwell a 1-0 lead with 18:56 to go in the second half, but Columbia City’s Trent Cole knotted the score with a goal at the 3:55 mark.
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In the girls match, Melissa Werling and Brittany Hartman each scored two goals to lead the Lady Knights who improved to 10-3 with one regular season match remaining on Thursday at Heritage.
The Lady Knights and Lady Eagles were tied at 2-2 after the first half.
Then Norwell junior Kylie Dial put the Lady Knights ahead 3-2 in the second half. However, Emily Saillant scored her second goal of the match to knot the score at 3-3.
Hartman netted the match-winning goal on a pass from Dial. Ali Macias scored on an assist from Alyssa Shutt and Hartman finished out the match with a goal on an assist by Dial.
Dial had four assists. She assisted on the first two goals by Werling that put Norwell ahead 2-0.
Norwell goalkeeper Nikki Rehling had 12 saves.
Cassy Nordman scored the second goal for Columbia City.
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