Unlikely hero emerges in PKs for Bulldogs in semistate semifinals

WARSAW | Crown Point coach JR Rosenbaum didn't hesitate. He put every ounce of his faith in Christian Lomeli.

Lomeli, the starting goalkeeper for the Bulldogs, was called upon to take the penalty kick that kept C.P.'s season alive, finding the net in a huge pressure situation to give the Bulldogs a victory over Noblesville after winning the shootout session 5-4.

"I shot some freshman year, but that was the last time I shot in high school," Lomeli said.

Lomeli, who added he felt some pressure in the scenario he was in, actually felt he had an advantage as a goalie going into his shot.

"A goalie can make that educated guess by looking at (the opposing goalkeeper's) eyes -- looking at their movement and how they play beforehand," Lomeli said of knowing where to shoot the ball. "I guess I have that edge in PKs."

Between the pipes, Lomeli also played a rock solid game, making eight saves and many other aggressive, game-saving defensive plays high in the goalie box that won't show up on a stat sheet.

"It's just a style that I've had since I was young," he said. "I've always liked to play high. I played the field until I was 12, so I guess I'm just comfortable coming out."

"It was nice to have him to be able to come up and cut off a lot of those balls before they became a problem," Rosenbaum added. "A lot of our defense cleaned up the mess, and Christian was there as an option to back them up."

In the shootout, Crown Point notched all five penalty kicks low in the net, while Noblesville's Brian Nguyen missed over the crossbar by a few inches to ultimately seal the win for C.P.

Both teams battled for 94 full minutes without finding the net. Crown Point had the better edge on attacking, but Noblesville's defensive field and goalkeeper Dayton Jennings (six saves) thwarted every scoring chance.

"I thought we had the better run of plays throughout the game, and we tried to play better soccer," Rosenbaum said. "(Noblesville) just has an amazing back line and keeper. They didn't give us a lot of opportunities and were able to close us off quickly. I thought the end result was a fair one for us."