Girls Sectional 4 – Penn
Penn Kingsmen
Record: 6-3-1
Current Class 3A listing: No. 20 on Thursday’s MaxPreps slate
Notable sectional result: Penn 3, Northridge 1
Penn has played an extremely useful schedule for preparing for October.
The Kingsmen enter Thursday 6-3-1 and face Warsaw, which entered Thursday 8-1-1 and No. 10 in the MaxPreps statewide listing.
Penn already owns a significant sectional victory, defeating Northridge 3-1 on September 8.
Tuesday brought another important measuring stick. Mishawaka Marian defeated Penn 1-0, showing how narrow the margin can be when Penn encounters another strong northern Indiana team.
Concord Minutemen
Record: 5-4 after Tuesday’s Northridge match
Goals entering Tuesday: 24
Leading scorer: Brynn Weirich — 11 goals
Assist leader: Mia Gallegos — 6 assists
Goalkeeper: Melina Serrano
Here’s a team with some very interesting individual numbers.
Entering Tuesday, Brynn Weirich had 11 goals, while Mia Gallegos had six assists. Concord had scored 24 goals through eight games.
Goalkeeper Melina Serrano had a 0.381 goals-against average in the available statistical sample.
Concord had already beaten sectional opponent Mishawaka and had also picked up victories over Wawasee, Elkhart and NorthWood. Penn had beaten Concord earlier in the season.
Northridge Raiders
Record: 5-3-1 entering Thursday
Conference: 3-0 in the latest team listing
Leading scorer: Maya Nelson — 4 goals
Assist leader: Taylor Heflin — 3 assists in the latest comparison
Goalkeeper: Allie Garber — 1.00 GAA, 3.6 saves/game
Northridge is another team whose record makes this sectional interesting.
The Raiders were 5-3-1 entering Thursday’s game against South Bend Saint Joseph.
Junior midfielder Maya Nelson had four goals and 18 shots in the latest available statistics. Senior Taylor Heflin was the assist leader, while junior goalkeeper Allie Garber carried a 1.00 goals-against average and averaged 3.6 saves.
Northridge has produced some convincing results, including a 7-0 victory over Plymouth and 1-0 win over Westview.
There are also two extremely useful sectional results: Penn defeated Northridge 3-1, while Marian defeated Northridge 2-0 earlier in the year.
Goshen RedHawks
Record: 6-3-2 entering Thursday
Goshen enters Thursday at 6-3-2 and hosts NorthWood.
The RedHawks are especially intriguing because the sectional contains several Northern Lakes Conference opponents, meaning there will be plenty of familiarity if Goshen draws Penn, Concord, Northridge or Mishawaka.
Mishawaka Cavemen
Record: 3-6 entering Thursday
Mishawaka enters Thursday 3-6 and faces Culver Academies.
The Cavemen have had difficulty against some of the stronger teams in this region. South Bend Adams defeated Mishawaka 11-2, while Concord also owns a head-to-head win over Mishawaka.’
Elkhart Lions
Elkhart has endured some difficult results against the upper end of northern Indiana competition.
One especially relevant result came immediately: Mishawaka Marian defeated Elkhart 10-1 on August 18.
Concord also owns a victory over Elkhart, giving us another direct comparison within Sectional 4.