Shelbyville prevails in penalty kicks to win first soccer game at McKeand Stadium

Ben Purvis is trying to teach his Shelbyville boys soccer team that adversity is only temporary and can be overcome.

Saturday morning in the opening match of the 31^st Annual Shelbyville Invitational, Tri-West scored two quick goals and the Golden Bears never recovered to suffer a 5-3 loss.

Approximately four hours later, Shelbyville moved from its soccer home just west of Shelbyville Middle School to J.M. McKeand Stadium at the high school to face Batesville in the first ever soccer game on the artificial turf installed one year ago.

This time, Shelbyville struck first with a pair of goals just past the midway point of the first half of the consolation game. But Batesville scored twice in a three-minute span of the second half to tie the contest and eventually send it to penalty kicks where Shelbyville proved dominant.

Joao Rivera, Richard Lira, Brock Wischmeyer and Diego Hernandez each scored easily to secure a 4-2 victory following the 3-all tie.

“I think the rain delay (in the morning) and the shortened warm-up time, I didn’t have them as ready as they needed to be I think,” said Purvis of the morning loss. “We went down two goals in the first three minutes. Once we settled in, I thought it was an evenly-played game. We clawed back to make it 3-3 but we were shorthanded to begin with and we kind of ran out of steam at the end.

“I was proud of how the kids responded. Some teams we’ve had in the past would have been quick to sink their heads and let it spiral. This team fought all the way back. I was proud of that effort even if we came up a little short.”

Mooresville defeated Batesville in the second semifinal game Saturday on natural grass at the Shelbyville Middle School complex before moving to McKeand Stadium and defeating Tri-West, 4-1, to claim the championship. Mooresville improved to 3-3 while Tri-West dropped to 2-4-1.

Shelbyville's Jett Suiter maintains possession of the soccer ball with Batesville's Ayden Eckstein (24) in pursuit Saturday at McKeand Stadium.

McKeand Stadium is typically busy hosting high school, middle school and elementary school football games, as it did Saturday morning. But with the schedule clear, Purvis was excited for the opportunity to compete on the new artificial turf Saturday afternoon.

“The turf field is nice. I appreciate when they put this in they thought of us as well,” said Purvis. “Especially with this group we’re playing with, a turf field fits our style and our skill set extremely well. It is nice to have it as an option.

“Being able to get a win our first time on the turf field is kind of a nice moment even though I know the kids wanted to be playing in the championship game.”

The whistle blew for the first time at 4:05 p.m. Saturday signaling the first soccer game at McKeand Stadium. Just over 25 minutes later, Jett Suiter delivered a high-arcing ball in front of the goal that Diego Hernandez settled and fired past Batesville goalkeeper Francisco Orozco for the game’s first score.

Less than one minute later, Aiden Helfer-Vazquez beat Orozco high to his right for a quick 2-0 lead.

Shelbyville's Joao Rivera and Batesville's Griffin Koester battle for control of the soccer ball in front of the Batesville goal Saturday at McKeand Stadium.

“We made a conscious effort and talked about that first five to ten minutes of the game, we wanted to set the tone,” said Purvis. “I thought the kids played extremely well getting used to the new turf. We connected our passes really well.”

Batesville scored its first of two goals off corner kicks when Oliver Camarena beat Shelbyville goalkeeper Nathan Tweedy off a delivery from Mathias Davalos.

Suiter then beat two Batesville defenders before firing past Orozco to give Shelbyville a 3-1 lead at halftime.

Just over 10 minutes into the second half, Simon Berkemeier rose high in the box to head in a corner kick to cut the lead to 3-2. Talan Rowlett capitalized on Shelbyville not clearing the box in front of Tweedy with the Bulldogs’ third goal of the game.

“Just some mental mistakes in the back,” said Purvis. “There second corner kick goal, that kid (Berkemeier) towers over everybody and that was a good ball. There wasn’t a single thing anyone could have done to stop that one. The third goal, we have to make better decisions to clear the ball. Those are things we’re still learning.”

The Golden Bears failed to get much offensive pressure over the final 25 minutes while Tweedy made a pair of tough saves to keep the match tied.

“Nathan Tweedy has put in a ton of work in the offseason. I commend him for his efforts because he stepped into the role last year as a varsity starter which was a new role for him making a jump to the varsity,” said Purvis. “There were mistakes made with the learning curve or growing pains if you will. He has taken the coaching that myself and coach (Michael) Parks has given to him and put a massive amount of work into the offseason.”

With a winner needing to be determined, Shelbyville and Batesville sent five representatives to midfield for penalty kicks. The Golden Bears went first.

Shelbyville's Brock Wischmeyer, left, tries to change directions with the soccer ball as Batesville's Ayden Eckstein defends Saturday at McKeand Stadium.

Rivera quickly made it 1-0 while Berkemeier nailed the top crossbar and failed to score.

Lira pushed it to 2-0 before Davalos went high over Tweedy’s head to set it at 2-1 after two rounds.

Wischmeyer went the opposite way Orozco guessed for a 3-1 advantage. Rowlett answered for Batesville (3-3).

Hernandez followed Wischmeyer’s plan and beat Orozco, who dove the wrong way in anticipation.

And when Carson Laker missed the goal wide, Shelbyville (3-2) celebrated what it expects to be its only win at McKeand Stadium this season.

Shelbyville’s girls soccer program is scheduled to host New Palestine at McKeand Stadium on Sept. 7.

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