By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – The ending is not always perfectly scripted.
As autumn’s early sunset splashed its spectacular colors on Bedford North Lawrence’s Senior Night celebration, it signaled the too-early conclusion of four careers. It doesn’t seem possible that summer has gone, that four years have vanished in a blink. Winning the regular-season finale would have been a great way to close. Seymour did not subscribe to that theory.
The Owls denied that storybook conclusion with a 3-0 victory on Thursday night. Diego Felipe scored twice as Seymour (7-6-2 overall, 2-3-1 in the Hoosier Hills Conference) limited BNL’s offensive chances while recording its fifth shutout of the season.
The Stars (5-11, 1-5 in the league) still scored life points. Those are the lessons BNL’s senior quartet of Owen Williams, Luke Easton, Zaden Roodschild and Raiden Todd will take away from their final appearance on home turf.
“You learn how to take a punch,” Williams said. “You just have to get back up. You get kicked, you have to keep going. You can take that into life. Don’t stop until someone actually stops you, and why let them do that?”
Seymour did stop BNL’s attack as the Stars managed only six shots. The Owls did that with defensive pressure, pouncing on passes to start their own surge.
“We work on counter pressing,” Seymour coach Matt Dennis said. “When we give the ball up, we want to press immediately, we don’t want them to pick out passes. Every time we lost the ball, we tried – not to win it back – to get pressure on the ball and get their head down so they couldn’t pick out a pass.”
Felipe cranked home a sharp shot from the left wing at 23:07 in the first half, and Bartolome Sebastian converted a penalty kick at 17:22. Felipe added a key insurance goal at 28:05 in the second half.
“He’s come on strong over the last two weeks,” Dennis said. “He’s dangerous getting in behind. When he’s good on possession, he opens things up for other players.”
Seymour (which had a second penalty kick crack off the top cross bar late in the first half) finished with 14 shots.
BNL had to settle for more lessons learned.
“I will remember the bond I created with my teammates,” Easton said. “I’ve been excited to go play soccer with my guys. These are friendships to last a lifetime, and I’m grateful for that.”
“It’s the memories I made with my friends,” Roodschild said. “It means a lot to have the opportunity to come out here and play every night.”
“All four years,” Todd concluded, “it’s been a family around soccer.”
BNL will now turn to the postseason. The Stars will face Bloomington South in the Class 3A sectional at Bloomington North on Wednesday.
