New Palestine High School

The New Palestine boys soccer team took an early lead and never looked back Thursday, winning a road game 3-0 over Hoosier Heritage Conference foe Shelbyville. The Dragons started the game on the front foot, scoring in the fifth minute. Brendan Tanksley's corner kick was headed through and ricocheted off the goalpost. Paxton Holmes, playing his first game since Aug. 21, punched the rebound into the net to send the Dragons off and running. The Dragons nearly added a second goal off a corner two minutes later, as Cody Crawmer took Tanksley's far-post cross. He beat the Shelbyville keeper far-post, but a defender swept it off the line. Lennon Pottle had another strong chance in the 37th minute, taking a cross from point-blank range and heading it on goal, but the Golden Bears keeper parried it over the bar. On the ensuing corner, Elliott Canova was set up from the top of the box, but again, was stopped by the Shelbyville goalkeeper. Blake Bobrow made two saves in the opening half. The Dragons again struck quickly after halftime. Cohen Wintin fed Cole Christopher into the center of the box, who went top-shelf to put the Dragons up 2-0 in the 43rd minute. In the 57th minute, the Dragons played a long ball up the left side to Christopher. He crossed it in to Wintin, who slipped the ball over to Tanksley for a finish to make it a 3-0 game. Three minutes earlier, Canova danced through the Shelbyville defense on the right side of the box and had a clean look from a sharp angle, but his near-post shot went just wide. The Dragons then saw out the victory, with a strong defensive effort and play from Bobrow in goal as the game got increasingly physical in the last 20 minutes. The Dragons improved to 6-3 with the victory and 2-2 in Hoosier Heritage Conference play. The JV match ended in a 1-1 draw. Will Bardonner scored the Dragons' goal on an assist from goalkeeper Jake Wells. The Dragons are next in action Saturday at Lawrence North, with a 10 a.m. JV kickoff, followed by the varsity at 11:45 a.m.