Triton Central's shutout streak extends to six with 1-0 win at Shelbyville

Zero is a big number for Triton Central girls soccer right now.

It’s the number goalkeeper Cheyenne Allen wears. And it’s the number of goals Allen and her Tigers defense have allowed in six straight matches.

On Thursday at Shelbyville, Triton Central extended its scoreless streak past 480 game minutes with a 1-0 victory over the Golden Bears.

In a very physical game between Shelby County and future Hoosier Legends Conference rivals, the best scoring opportunity of the contest came in the final minutes.

Rylee Pruitt found space to run and attacked the Shelbyville defense. She connected with freshman Madelyn Burnett to her right who then beat Shelbyville goalkeeper Lucille Haacker for the goal with three minutes, three seconds left on the clock.

“Happiness. I just started jumping up and down,” said Allen after the match. “I was so happy.”

Allen’s work was not done, though.

Shelbyville quickly pressured and Hannah Baker earned an opportunity to take one more uncontested shot at the net. Following a foul, Baker struck the ball hard on goal but right into the chest of Triton Central’s senior goalkeeper.

“Oh, my heart sunk,” said Allen of Baker, one of Shelbyville’s top goal scorers, lining up the shot. “It bounced (off my chest). That is what made me scared because I saw somebody running toward me.”

That one final save preserved the victory.

Allen and her lightning-fast defense added Shelbyville to its list of shutout victims this season which includes Warren Central, Connersville, Beech Grove, Rushville and Perry Meridian. The Tigers defeated each opponent except Connersville. The match ended in a scoreless draw.

Triton Central improved to 5-1-1 this season with another stellar defensive effort.

“My defense has been great,” said Allen. “Them all talking is helping so much with me. They are telling me who is behind me, if there is a cutback, if there is not going to be one. They are helping me a lot. The shutouts go to them.”

“They are fantastic. They are all fast,” said Triton Central head coach Matt Roberts. “They have been playing together now for a couple of years, so they have some chemistry together. They are playing really well. They are tough to score on.

“I never thought we would get six shutouts in a row. We had six shutouts all last year. To get six in a row is remarkable.”

Shelbyville tried to end the streak. The Golden Bears, celebrating Pink Out Night by wearing pink uniforms, put constant pressure on the Triton Central defense early on.

“Our intensity from the start wasn’t great,” said Roberts. “We were kind of slow getting to balls. We weren’t really playing the ball to our team like we work on in practice. I wasn’t really happy with them at the start.

“They did get it together. We started subbing in. One of the things about our team this year is we are really deep. We have a lot of players we rotate and get playing time. We got some of our bench players in and they really upped the tempo and got things turned around.”

Triton Central finally turned up the pressure on the Shelbyville defense and Haacker, who thwarted several legitimate scoring attacks during the match.

The Tigers continued the pressure to start the second half but could not break through. Shelbyville countered several times but could not piece together the right scoring opportunity.

“(Allen) did a phenomenal job,” said Shelbyville head coach Stephanie Munger. “I wished we moved a little more on our (corner kicks) to make it a little more chaotic for her. We made them pretty easy for her unfortunately.”

Pruett got a run on goal inside the final 10 minutes but could not finish the attack. She didn’t miss when she got another chance a few minutes later.

“One bad run can end a soccer game and that is what we had,” said Munger. “They had a lot of fast players that could find space when they needed.

“We had a very similar tough conference game on Tuesday before this and it went down to 5:52 (before Shelbyville scored). We know we are a team that can play all 80 (minutes).”

The Golden Bears, now 6-4, defeated Pendleton Heights Tuesday 1-0. They continue their final season in the Hoosier Heritage Conference on Saturday at Delta (7-0, 2-0 HHC). The Eagles have outscored their opponents this season 62-2.

Triton Central (1-0 HLC) is at Tri-West (6-3, 3-0 HLC) Saturday in a battle of the only two teams in the HLC without a conference loss.

With a veteran squad anchored by 11 seniors, Roberts has the Tigers squarely focused on postseason success.

“Our goal is to win a sectional,” he said. “We made two (sectional) finals in a row and lost one on penalty kicks. We have 11 seniors and a lot of them have played all four years. We have good chemistry, and they set the right culture for the team.

“We think we have a shot this year. It’s been eight years since we’ve won (a sectional). That’s our goal.”

Triton Central’s junior varsity squad stayed unbeaten (6-0) this season with a 3-1 win at Shelbyville. Lilly Kegley, Harper Young and Alina Kahler each scored for Triton Central. Kahler also had two assists.

Neveah Cole scored Shelbyville’s lone goal.

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