Noblesville All-American player Palmer Ault is one of the key returning players for the Millers this season. Noblesville will host Greenfield-Central on Tuesday to open its 2021 campaign. (Image by Kent Graham)
Soccer: Southeastern boys start at home, ‘Hounds, Tigers are on the road
POSTED BY: RICHIE HALL AUGUST 12, 2021 for the Hamilton County Reporter
By RICHIE HALL
The first official day that IHSAA boys soccer games can be played is Saturday, and three Hamilton County teams will be taking to the field that day.
Hamilton Southeastern will host Mount Vernon for its season opener, while two more schools will be going on the road. Carmel plays at Zionsville and Fishers travels to Franklin Central for an early Hoosier Crossroads Conference game.
The Tigers won a regional championship last year and came very close to advancing to the state finals. Fishers coach Phil Schmidt said his team returns “many key contributors” from that squad.
Juniors Noah Reinhart, a Second Team All-State player and Keiji Nakamae will lead the attack, while two seniors, goalkeeper and captain Tyler March and center back Teghan Brownell, and sophomore Kyle Clayton, are the top defenders.
Four-year letter winner and captain Sam Hevesy and captain Charlie Stump will lead the midfield. In addition, the Tigers will have several first-year varsity players and three freshmen. In all, Schmidt says Fishers has a solid team with quite a bit of potential.
“We need some new varsity players to step up in new roles and gel with our returning players to allow us to be the best team we can possibly be,” said Schmidt. “I believe we will be really strong in team defense and have offensive playmakers that can be difference makers.”
The Greyhounds are back with 12 seniors on their roster: Thomas Barrett, Andrew Caito, Cole Fogleman, Chase Havice, Ian Mahoney, Josh Martinez, Baenan Mckeown, Richard Monsey, William Morgan, Elijah Shemesh, Cade Turton and Andrew Valdez.
“We are looking forward to another tough schedule again this year,” said Carmel coach Shane Schmidt. “We return 12 letter winners from last year’s team, with five of them who have starting experience and several others who played major minutes.” Schmidt said the team is “excited to see our younger players mix in with or returners.”
University will begin its season on Monday, hosting Heritage Christian. The Trailblazers will have a new coach, Alex Baumgart, who recently coached at Park Tudor for six seasons.
BUSY TUESDAY
The other five county schools will open their seasons on Tuesday. Noblesville will host Greenfield-Central in its opener, then play at Carmel on Thursday.
The Millers, who were ranked No. 1 in Class 3A for several weeks last year, return All-American senior Palmer Ault and All-Great Lakes Region Spencer Holland. Noblesville coach Ken Dollaske said those two contributed over 50 percent of the Millers’ offense last season.
Defensive players back include Second Team All-State Gabe Ingle at goalkeeper and Brady Horn at center back. Other returners are Drew Cochran, Kyle Goad, Brayden Doll and Andy Stansfield, while two transfers, Michael Crandley and Noah Bernot, are also on the roster.
Noblesville will play its usual difficult schedule, taking on seven 3A top 20 teams and 2A No. 1 Guerin Catholic.
“On top of that, a matchup with nationally ranked St. Ignatius High School from Cleveland, Ohio will truly show how good the Millers can be this season,” said Dollaske.