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Argos, Culver to meet in semis; Caston gets LCA, Winamac gets NM
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Rochester and Tippecanoe Valley boys soccer teams were placed in opposite halves of the bracket in their new-look Class 2A sectional when they travel to Maconaquah next week.
Meanwhile, rivals Argos and Culver will meet in the semifinals of their Class 1A sectional at Argos, according to the IHSAA draw revealed Sunday.
Sectionals week is scheduled for Oct. 7-12. Regional semifinals are Oct. 17, regional finals are Oct. 19, semistates are Oct. 26, and the state finals are Nov. 1-2 at Michael Carroll Stadium on the IU Indianapolis campus.
Sectional tickets are $7 per session. The IHSAA will no longer offer sectional season tickets.
Here is a look at how the draw played out for the six area teams:
Rochester, Valley
Rochester played a marathon game at home against Peru in their Three Rivers Conference game before falling 2-1 in penalty kicks.
Now they will meet again in a Class 2A, Sectional 22 quarterfinal at Maconaquah to open the sectional. The winner will meet Wabash, who received a bye, in the semifinals.
The winner of the Peru-Rochester game could have a good opportunity to reach the sectional final. Wabash is 2-11, and their losses include a 6-0 loss to Rochester and a 4-0 loss to Peru.
In the other half of the draw, the Valley-Northwestern winner will meet the Maconaquah-Eastern (Greentown) winner in the semifinals.
Valley is 3-10 and have scored only 10 goals in their 13 games. Northwestern, whose interim coach is Argos grad Spencer VanDerWeele, has won three in a row and is 8-4-1. The Tigers are also the two-time defending sectional champions.
Northwestern also has a win over Maconaquah this season.
Argos, Caston, Culver, Winamac
Argos defeated Culver 11-0 in the first ever Hoosier North meeting between the rivals, and they will meet again in a Class 1A, Sectional 36 semifinal at Argos.
Argos is the two-time defending sectional champion, and they have won 12 sectionals in 13 years since the inception of class soccer in 2011.
In the other half of the draw, the Winamac-North Miami winner will face the Caston-Lakeland Christian winner in the semifinals.
The Winamac-North Miami game will be a rematch of a Sept. 5 game that North Miami won 1-0. Winamac is seeking its first sectional title since 2001, when current Rochester girls soccer assistant coach Mark Eber was the head coach.
Caston (3-7) has won three straight games since an 0-7 start. Their last loss prior to starting their winning streak was a 7-0 loss to Lakeland Christian at home on Sept. 14.
Caston’s lone sectional crown came in 2021.
