By RICHARD TORRES
For The Reporter
FISHERS – The top-ranked Class 3A Hamilton Southeastern Royals don’t care how they win.
They just want the W.
On Wednesday night, the unbeaten Royals grabbed their 12th consecutive and proved margins of victory are far from the objective after shutting out Hoosier Crossroads Conference rival 3A No. 4 Westfield, 1-0.
A quick goal in the third minute by senior Sloane May, a Michigan commit, off an assist by senior Blair Satterfield, an Indiana recruit, put the nationally-ranked Royals in front where they stayed behind junior goalkeeper Hannah Dodge’s ninth shutout of the season.
“We haven’t had this close of a game, so they’re feeling like, ‘Did we do OK? Is this good enough?’ At the end of the day, a win’s a win in our conference against a quality team, 1-0 is enough,” HSE head coach Greg Davidson said.
Ranked first in the nation by MaxPreps and second by the United Soccer Coaches Association, Hamilton Southeastern (12-0, 6-0 HCC) is averaging 5.0 goals per match with 60 scored in a dozen contests.
Prior to Wednesday against Westfield (9-1-1, 3-1 HCC), the Royals’ closest match score was 3-1 in the season opener at 3A No. 2 Carmel.
“I feel like we’ve been one of the top two teams in the state in the last five or six years, gotten everybody’s best game,” Davidson said. “Obviously, that target got a little bigger this year.”
Their meeting with Westfield was a test between two unbeaten HCC teams, and the Royals’ pressure offense and defense handed the Shamrocks their first loss.
HSE fired eight shots in the first half and finished with 18 overall in addition to 10 shots on goal. With nearly 30 attacking opportunities, the Shamrocks fended off another goal with five saves from senior goalkeeper Emma Deitsch and three more from sophomore Leah Hunsucker in the second half.
Westfield matched HSE with eight shots in the first half, but the Royals’ defense limited the Shamrocks to 10 shots total and five shots on goal.
“Games like these are so special to us because they’re challenging, and they make us better. They prepare us for a tight game that we could face in sectional, regional or state,” May said. “Just showing we can give the effort to the very last minute, we can fight, we can secure and not get scored on, is really important to us.”
The Royals’ confidence in one another continues to grow, especially in Dodge, who logged six saves to preserve the clean sheet. Dodge has allowed three goals in 12 contests.
Westfield trailed in attacks early on 6-2, but the Rocks evened it up 11-11 before HSE nearly doubled them up by the final horn.
“A lot of it has been the defense, too,” Dodge said. “I’m not getting it to my hands, and I think it just shows all of our offense, too. We keep scoring, so a lot of times, I’m not even in the play. It’s a trust thing where they can protect me, and then they know that they can have confidence in me.”
Westfield entered the night ranked 10th in the nation by MaxPreps, but all it took was one goal by HSE to defend their home field and keep their streak going.
“I went forward, and I didn’t have the greatest touch, but something that we work on is just that second effort. Always fighting through,” Satterfield remarked on their assist to May near the top of the box. “Sloane was making a great run in, and all I had to do was find her, and we were able to get a goal off that.”
They got the W, too.
“We play a very hard schedule. Every team around us is a very good team, so we take a lot of pride in the record we have, and props to all the teams that we play,” May said. “Even though sometimes we may score a decent amount of goals, every team that we’ve played has given us a good game, and we’ve been able to grow from each and every game.”
