'Pure joy' as Bloomington South girls soccer wins semistate title

COLUMBUS — During this latest postseason run by the Bloomington South girls' soccer team, sophomore Izzy Sweet has used her feet and her hands (during an emergency stint at keeper) to make big plays.

Add her head to the mix on Saturday in the Class 3A Columbus East Semistate. She wasn't the target of Zoe Kunzman's corner kick late in the first half, but the ball found her anyway in a good bit of fortune as her header just crossed the line before the keeper could get a glove on it.

The most important body parts after that for every Panther were their hearts and lungs, especially in the second half when No. 6 Indianapolis Cathedral had the wind and momentum at its back. It was exhausting, thrilling, nail-biting, but the defense refused to let the Irish score in a 1-0 win that sends No. 11 South to the finals for the first time since 2003.

Cue the mob scene just outside the box in front of South's bench as the horn sounded...

"Oh my god, I'm exhausted, but I'm just so happy right now," Sweet said. "I'm just filled with joy because this team, it means so much to me. And to make it this far and we're going to state, it's just amazing. It's just the best feeling ever. And to be honest, I was tired, but I kept going because I could not let them score on us and I could not let them take this from us.

"My main intention this year is to do it for the seniors. All for the seniors."

South's four seniors, Kay Lacy, Zoe Kunzman, Annalise Coyne and Keira Robinson, all played at semistate in 2021 and suffered the heartbreak of an overtime loss. This time, they walked off winners.

"This is all I could ask for is having the longest season I possibly could," Kunzman said. "It's an honor for me that my teammates are so hard-working and wanting to win that it's allowed me to get to this point."

The Panthers (18-2-1) will face the defending state champs from Noblesville (16-1-3), who beat Crown Point, 3-1, with a three-goals-in-three-minutes flurry to open the second half, for the title at IUPUI's Carroll Stadium in Indianapolis. The IHSAA will announce dates and times for all six finals games on Sunday.

Goin' with the wind

It was most definitely a tale of two halves on a breezy day, and the team heading north with a 15-mph wind at its back had the better of it for nearly all 40 minutes.

"We knew we had to get one off the bat," Kunzman said.

South coach David Prall was happy to have the wind first, to help, nay force, his team to get on the front foot to start like it did against Castle a week ago. The other plus was that if South could put a ball in the net, that laid all the pressure on the Irish to play from behind.

The Panthers had six shots to just two for Cathedral, three on goal and six corner kicks to two for the Irish. But the breakthrough finally happened after a small mistake by the Irish keeper, who let a ball slip away from her at the backline in the 26th minute.

It led to a corner. Kunzman launched it. It was the 5-foot-11 Sweet's job to get a body on Cathedral's 5-foot-10 Catherine Cline (No. 14), who is good at winning balls in the box. Instead...

"All I was supposed to do was knock her, get her out of the way, don't let her get the ball," Sweet said. "And I see Zoe, beautiful, beautiful ball. So perfect. So, I'm like, 'Right here.' So, I went for it, and bam!

"But I was a little scared because the ref didn't call goal immediately. I'm like, 'If this is not called...'"

There was a short delay as the linesman made the call and the field ref confirmed the call.

"I just went and hugged my teammates," Sweet said. "And pure joy, hearing them announce the goal on the voice-over."

Cathedral had only one real good chance, and it came with six minutes left when a pass got away, leaving Amya Usher an open look at the net, but the shot ricocheted off the left post.

"I really thought we could've been up 2-0 in the first half," Prall said. "I thought we might be in trouble. They could have scored there. That would have been a disaster because I thought we had it a lot better in the first half. But 1-0, you can't complain."

Against the wind

"The wind was crazy," Sweet said. "When we switched, it was just so different and so chaotic. The second half was a lot different for us."

Indeed, Cathedral had four corners to none for South and three shots on goal to just one of the Panthers.

"It just felt like we were playing on a hill," Prall said. "Maybe I underestimated the wind the first half because were in control. We just couldn't get out of our own end."

South never subbed again and survived.

"We had so much energy going into it," Kunzman said. "We wanted it so bad. We were ready to fight tooth and nail. There was no pulling us back. We put everything into it."

Really, the ending was not all that scary as South kept the Irish from any quality chances over the last five minutes and even had some possession time in Cathedral's half, to end it rather quietly.

"You play these teams, you have to bend but not break," Prall said. "Yeah, they had some loose balls in the box and could have scored a scrappy goal, but it's not like they were missing breakaways or free headers.

"So I thought we did a good job of finding second balls and blocking and doing little things very well."

It's tough for exhausted players to keep doing those little things, but they did.

"You're just running on adrenalin at that point," Kunzman said. "You're so close you can taste it. Your legs are done, but your mind is not."

One cool freshman

South freshmen keeper Paloma Martinez had three saves, one punching the ball away in a crowd, and made all the right plays.

"I've known her for so long, and I knew she would come and make such and impact for this team," Sweet said. "She's proven it so well. She's done such an amazing job. She's calm, collected."

Said Martinez, "This was crazy. I was on my toes the entire game, and this half with the wind, it was really hard. And that girl's throw ins, they were going pretty far.

"I had to just be in the zone and stay focused."

Martinez has allowed one goal in her last 320 minutes in net.

"As a freshman she's taken on a role that I can't even imagine," Kunzman said. "So much pressure, and she's taken it beautifully."

On to state

"I was more nervous for the Center Grove game than this one, for whatever reason," Prall said. "I knew we were ready for it to be that type of game."

One more game just like it awaits. South's last trip came under the one-class system in 2003, with a morning semifinal win against Chesterton before turning around and falling to Carmel in the final. These Panthers will get a week off before the final step.

More: Robinson, Sweet centerbacks of attention for Bloomington South girls soccer

As Kunzman left the field, the fact she'll be playing for a state title hadn't sunk in yet.

"It's been a complete blur since the buzzer," she said. "It's gonna hit tomorrow, and it'll be another week of practice and grinding it out."

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on X (Twitter) @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Pure joy' as Bloomington South girls soccer wins semistate title