Dragons fall short in soggy regional final

Story courtesy of The Pilot News.

KOKOMO — A story that most thought would never be written came just shy of a happy ending as Argos fell to Park Tudor in regional soccer action in a steady rain at Taylor High School by a 2-0 final.

A team that had faced no end of adversity during their regular season including the absence of their head coach, Todd VanDerWeele, to start his own fight against cancer, and winning just three games in the regular season. In the end, the Dragons came together and were one step shy of the final four.

“To get to this point it was movielike,” said coach Damon Binkley. “I hate to say it was kind of a ‘Cinderella’ story because these guys have always been able to play the way they have. I think it took them a while to see that but once they did it was an eyes wide-open kind of thing. We stressed togetherness, family, ‘la familia’ is what Todd (VanDerWeele) likes to say. They came together at the right time.”

It was a physical struggle from the beginning with a multitude of yellow cards and a pair of red cards by the end of the second half, with neither team backing off from the opening kick.

“It was a battle we knew it would be,” said Binkley. “Historically Park Tudor is a very good program they have a good team this year we came ready to battle and a battle is what we got.”

“I think tensions were high for both teams,” he said. “There was a lot riding on this game. It did get a little chippy but I think both teams tried really hard to keep things under control.”

In the early going it was a stalemate with each team getting opportunities and pushing the issue but by the halfway point of the first half Park Tudor was able to push the issue a little harder.

“They made it difficult to go forward,” said Binkley. “I don’t think we found our feet the way we normally do passing wise which would make it difficult against any team, especially Park Tudor.”

“I don’t think that we had a ton of chances offensively compared to the last couple of games,” he said. “I thought the chances that we had were quality. I thought (Ethan) Petz was going to get one in the second half that would have tied it up and that makes things look a lot different.”

Early in the second half Petz caught the Tudor goalie Gabriel Sanich out of position and just missed tying the game.

In the first half, Park Tudor was able to take advantage of a lapse by the Dragons, when under the slippery conditions Argos keeper Boyd Paul had a save squirt out of his control that landed right at the feet of Park Tudor’s Elliot Scotten for the Panthers first goal.

Park Tudor would be hampered by being off-side twice in the first half having goals waved off and a penalty kick by Scotten hit the goal post and bounced away.

Playing on turf for one of the few times all season added to the weather made it a big adjustment for Argos.

“It definitely is a different animal,” said Binkley of playing on turf. “We aren’t making excuses, but we have two to three games a year on turf usually pretty early in the year. It’s been a while since we’ve seen it. We talked about getting adjusted to it as fast as we could today. I don’t think we ever really got a rhythm with it as far as our passing was concerned. A lot of our passes were heavy.”

Park Tudor was able to add a second goal in the second half by Carson Shattuck on a header off of a corner kick that would seal the win.

The Dragons ended their year as sectional champions with a record of 5-14.

“We got hot as team because they were playing together from our freshman to our seniors,” said Binkley. “We will miss each and every one of our seniors. They were a big part of getting together at the end.”

•PARK TUDOR 2, ARGOS 0
Regional Final
at Taylor High School
Scoring;
First half
PT — 3:45 Elliot Scotten
Second half
PT — 21:19 Carson Shattuck