Hill gets on the board, Arabian girls win regular season finale

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ARCADIA–For Lexi Hill, it was a long time coming.

Due to injury, the second leading scorer among returning players was playing just her third game of the season and had yet to find the back of the net.

After 358 days plus one half of soccer, the sophomore wasted little time getting on the board in the second half Wednesday evening.

Less than three minutes into the second half, Hill broke a scoreless tie with her first goal since last year’s sectional to spark a 3-0 Pendleton Heights win in the final game of the regular season.

The Arabians (12-3-1) will open postseason play in the Hamilton Southeastern sectional Tuesday with a 7 p.m. start against Muncie Central.

Coming off an emotional overtime win against Mt. Vernon Monday, the Arabians were understandably flat offensively in the first half. But they turned up the offensive pressure in the second half and it paid immediate dividends as Hill delivered off a pass from junior Claire Fendel for the 1-0 lead at the 37:56 mark.

It was Hill’s first goal since she scored twice in the sectional opener last October 4 against Anderson and could be a big psychological boost heading into the postseason.

“She can score at a high rate,” coach Mark Davy said. “But to see that go in and finally feel like she still has it. That’ll be good for us.”

Hill says having to sit out so long with an injury was frustrating, but to finally break through felt great.

“It made me feel good,” she said. “It really boosted my confidence. I was really upset (about the injury). It took a lot to accept it.”

Junior Taylor Fort doubled the lead at the 28:12 mark off a perfect feed from senior Kate Cowger for a 2-0 lead. The team’s leading scorer, with 15 goals, said the team’s confidence is strong heading into next week’s sectional.

“It’s pretty high,” Fort said. “We just wanted to come out with a better record than last year and we’ve done that.”

Fendel picked up a second assist with 18:41 remaining when she found senior Ari Francis, who cashed in for a 3-0 lead.

The Arabian back line, without key defender Megan Green, helped complete their seventh shutout of the season, allowing only one relatively difficult save opportunity for senior goalkeeper Shayla Meinders.

“That was one of our keys of the game,” Davy said. “We wanted to reaffirm our dominance on defense. All year long, that’s been one of the trademarks of our team.”

The Arabians will now turn their attention to the Hamilton Southeastern sectional matchup with Muncie Central, a team Davy is not necessarily familiar with, yet.

“We don’t know a lot about them,” he said of the Bearcats. “Those teams that we don’t see often, you want to come out and play good soccer.”

With a win, Pendleton Heights would play either the host Royals or Fishers. Either team may have represented an intimidating matchup in the past, but not this year.

“(They’re) two teams that, maybe in the past, we worried about,” Davy said. “But we think we’re in the right spot at the right time to maybe advance in the tourney and take one of those teams out.”

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