ANDERSON — Toby Gruver has scored a lot of goals for Muncie Central this season — 13, to be exact — but none was bigger than the one he scored against Anderson on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
With 10 minutes left in a scoreless match, the Bearcats’ junior striker charged into the box and fielded a through pass from fellow junior Brayden Escamilla just inside the box. Gruver glided through the defense, fought through a tackle attempt and sent his shot right past the Anderson keeper and into the back right corner of the net.
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“I’ve been working hard, so it’s like a second instinct to me,” Gruver said. “I saw the gap, and Brayden, my teammate played it right through for me, made it easy and I finished it into the corner. That’s what we do as a team.”
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Gruver’s goal was the deciding factor in a 1-0 victory for Muncie Central over its North Central Conference rival. The win gave them a perfect 5-0 record in NCC play, clinching the Bearcats their first conference title since 1995 and only the second NCC title in the history of their boys soccer program.
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“I’ve been coaching for 22 years, and let’s just say that I’m finally happy to see one here tonight,” Muncie Central coach Shea Hill said. “It’s pretty awesome. The NCC is always a tough conference to play in. Great coaches, great players, and (Anderson coach) Chris Spolyar is an amazing coach in ECI and across the state, so we knew his team was going to play really well tonight.
“To get a victory here tonight, to be NCC champs, is a huge deal to these guys because they’ve been fighting their butt off all season.”
Muncie Central’s record improved to 9-1-1 with the win, and the Bearcats have now won seven games in a row. The last three of those games have all come on the road against NCC opponents, and all three saw the purple and white survive an absolute dogfight.
First, the Bearcats took a trip to Richmond on Tuesday, Sept. 8, where senior Zia Chinar scored a header in the first half on a throw-in from freshman Roguen Wheatley. The Red Devils managed to equalize it at 1-1 in the second half and eventually forced penalty kicks, where the Bearcats emerged 6-5 after a lengthy shootout.
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Then came a visit to Lafayette Jefferson to take on the Bronchos. It was another physical, defensive battle that required what Hill described as a “banger” of a free kick from Escamilla to break the draw and lift Central to a 1-0 win.
That left Tuesday’s match at Anderson as the conference-clincher, and the Bearcats were well aware of those implications going into it. However, they were also well aware that the Indians were going to put up a strong fight, and they did exactly that. After Central got an early chance for Gruver, Anderson hunkered down defensively and shut down the Bearcats’ opportunities for the rest of the first half while earning a few more themselves.
In the second half, Anderson barely had the ball on Central’s end of the field at all. The Bearcats’ defensive back line of seniors Chinar, Jace Burkhart and Judah Smith — along with junior keeper Max Beane — completely shut down Anderson’s attack, which allowed the offense to get back to dominating the possessions and eventually create the game’s lone goal in the 70th minute of action.
“I think part of that is, you give a tip of the cap to the hard work that the guys have put in,” Hill said. “In summer, in preseason, the stuff they’ve been doing with (strength and conditioning coach Matt) Miller in the weight room at Central shows up in the last 20 to 25 minutes. The defense has had to step up time and time again, and they have been stout. They’re something to watch, a big, physical, fast, talented group, they do it all well, and I am just so proud of them for coming through.”
The Bearcats will look to keep stacking wins with five nonconference games left, but the schedule doesn’t get much easier with talented teams like Hamilton Heights, Yorktown, New Castle and Delta on the horizon. The tough schedule will prepare Central for an even tougher Class 3A sectional that features ISCA-ranked teams like Hamilton Southeastern and Fishers, as well as the only team to defeat Central this season in Pendleton Heights.
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For now, the Bearcats are riding high after their first conference title in 31 years, but they are also hungry to keep making history.
“Honestly, it means more than anything,” Escamilla said. “We’re always the underdogs, whether it’s conference or sectionals or any Indy team, so going in and showing that we can go undefeated in our conference and all these games really shows how a team that’s not declared as a big team can really step up to the table and be the best, show out and hopefully go to sectionals with a good run.”
Contact Cade Hampton via email at cbhampton@usatodayco.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Muncie Central boys soccer clinches first NCC title in 31 years
