GOSHEN — It would be hard to fault the Mishawaka Marian girls soccer team if it didn’t take much time to celebrate a regional semifinal victory. Last season’s IHSAA Class 2A state champions came into the 2026 season having won five straight regional championships, and it will now have a chance to extend that streak to six following a 3-0 win vs. Goshen in a Class 3A semifinal Wednesday, Oct. 14.
The Knights had every right to act nonchalant after the victory, shake the RedHawks’ hands and immediately shift focus toward Saturday’s Penn-hosted 3A regional championship at 2 p.m. ET vs. No. 14 Crown Point (13-3-3). Instead, No. 8 Marian celebrated accordingly after staying true to its mindset: Never be satisfied and leave no doubt.
No win is easy at this point in the season, even if the Knights made it look effortless at times.
“Milana [Micola], Kendall [Bradley] and that group have played in two state finals in [front of] a big crowd, in a lot of important semi-state games, and all those crazy Holy War and Penn games,” said Marian coach Henry Vu, the 2026 Northern Indiana Conference (NIC) Coach of the Year. “We’re blessed to be experienced and handle the pressure of the crowd. They know once the whistle is blown, they have to play for each other, play their hardest and play together.”
Micola scored the Knights’ first goal, Bradley scored the second, and the third belonged to Bradley’s younger sister, sophomore Aubrey. Both senior team captains, Micola and Kendall shifted the attention from their goals to highlighting their siblings.
Aubrey has been a consistent scorer for Marian throughout its 13-3 campaign so far, taking a measurable jump from her play last season as a freshman contributor for a state championship squad. While her older sister still leads the Knights in goals and won the NIC MVP award, Kendall was sure to highlight how much Aubrey has improved.
“I couldn’t be prouder of her,” Aubrey said. “It makes me cry thinking about not being able to play with her next year, and I know this team is going to be in good hands with her. She’s really stepping up to her role, she’s not intimidated.”
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Milana’s younger sister, junior Olivia, was a First Team All-NIC selection, while Milana was named to the Second Team. The older sister scored the first goal of the game Wednesday, but the younger sister was crucial to Marian’s defensive effort toward its 11th shutout of the season.
“I just remember her as this little freshman coming in, and I was just so excited to play with her,” Milana said. “I’ve had the opportunity to play with her for three years, so it’s hard to leave my sister. It’s not just us we’re winning for; it’s the people behind us who also get to experience those wins but continue to keep winning.”
South Bend Saint Joseph, Trinity Academy advance
Perhaps no two players better embody the guiding principles of South Bend Saint Joseph girls soccer than seniors Emily Keegan and Lydia Goodsell. Head coach Phil DePauw’s group lives by “resilience and strength.”
The First Team and Second Team All-NIC selections, respectively, each dealt with leg injuries that sidelined them this season, but are at full strength in the IHSAA 2A state tournament. They helped the No. 2 Huskies capture their first sectional championship since 2021 last weekend and were crucial toward Saint Joseph’s 3-0 win vs. Illiana Christian in a regional semifinal Wednesday.
Goodsell scored two goals and Keegan found the back of the net once. The Huskies will face No. 9 Bellmont (13-6-1) – a team they’ve already beaten 4-0 back in August – in a Marian-hosted regional championship game at 2p.m. Saturday.
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In a phone call interview with the South Bend Tribune, DePauw said Goodsell and Keegan are both gamechangers for the 12-2-3 Huskies despite the squad also boasting three other all-conference selections. Saint Joseph has its deepest roster in years, but it is favored to head back to semi-state for the first time in a half decade thanks to top-end talent like Keegan and Goodsell.
“We certainly are accelerating, we’re playing well, we’re clicking, we’re hungry,” DePauw said. “We’re hungry for the next game, the next opportunity, the next pass, the next play, the next game.”
Across South Bend, 1A No. 11 Trinity Academy won a regional semifinal for the first time in program history with a 3-2 win vs. No. 18 Boone Grove. Senior Audrey Lee scored twice while junior Veronica Drake had one goal.
The Titans move to 15-3 and will face No. 7 Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian (15-2-3) in a Westview-hosted regional championship game at 2 p.m. Saturday. While these two teams didn’t cross paths in the regular season, in the month of October alone, Trinity has beaten three ranked teams while Blackhawk has toppled or tied with two, including No. 2 Westview.
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A silver lining for the Titans is that they were able to beat No. 8 Elkhart Christian Academy while the Braves merely tied the Eagles. In a phone call interview with the South Bend Tribune, head coach Ryan Milligan said Trinity’s five-deep senior class chose “grit” as their defining trait before the season even began, certainly apt for a program representing a school with less than 200 students.
“They just keep working, and they don’t panic,” Milligan said. “We don’t have goals that relate to progressing in the tournament; we haven’t really talked, specifically, about that. They’ve shown a really good resiliency – no matter the situation – to just keep grinding it out.”
Marian’s, Saint Joseph’s and Trinity’s semifinal wins ensured that come Saturday, a St. Joseph County team will compete for an IHSAA girls soccer regional championship in all three classes.
Kyle Smedley is a sports reporter at the South Bend Tribune. Contact him via email at ksmedley@usatodayco.com or follow him on X @KyleMSmedley.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Marian, Saint Joseph, Trinity win IHSAA girls soccer regional semifinals