Wawasee’s Natalie Jones gets physical with West Noble’s Jocelyn Rivera. Rivera scored twice for the Chargers Wednesday night. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – It was the best of games, it was the worst of games.

It was mostly just a tale of two halves for the Wawasee girl’s soccer team on Wednesday night. The Lady Warriors welcomed in West Noble for their first home game. Things looked good early for Wawasee but a strong second half surge led to a 3-1 victory for West Noble.

The first half belonged to the Lady Warriors. Wawasee pressured the Chargers for the first 40 minutes racking up six shots on goal. The only down side was that Wawasee could not get the ball in the net.

That changed at the 11:58 mark when sophomore Savannah Schwartz pinpointed a corner kick to teammate Caitlin Clevenger. The junior took advantage of the nice pass and scored to give Wawasee a 1-0 lead. Schwartz was credited with the assist on the play.

Sophomore Savannah Schwartz recorded an assist with this kick as Caitlin Clevenger would score for Wawasee.

The Lady Warriors rode the momentum of their first goal of the season for the rest of the half virtually keeping West Noble in its own territory. The second half, however, would be a completely different story.

“We just broke down defensively,” said assistant coach Kassandra Simbeck who was filling in for head coach Doug Heinisch. Heinisch missed the varsity match for personal reasons.

“In the first half we were marking up and in the second half we failed to do that as well. We would mark up in the second half and West Noble would run and we would just lose them. It was just a defensive breakdown,” Simbeck added.

West Noble knotted the game at 1-1 after freshman Emily Morren found the back of the net half way through the second half. The momentum had started to shift in favor of the Chargers but Wawasee still had its chances. The Lady Warriors were deep in Charger territory a several occasions after Morren’s goal but failed to score and only managed two shots on goal.

Wawasee’s Caitlin Clevenger keeps control between West Noble’s Olga Landeros (8) and Selene Murillo (3).

What turned into a back and forth chess match between the two teams turned into a runaway Charger victory thanks to Jocelyn Rivera. The junior midfielder scored the go-ahead goal for West Noble with just over 15 minutes to play on a play similar to Morren’s goal. Sophomore goalie Nicole Streby was pulled shortly after ending her day with eight saves. Rivera would finally took the wind out of Wawasee’s sails with her second goal at the seven minute mark. The junior lofted a ball over replacement goalie Priscilla Par to put her team up 3-1 and put the game on ice.

Wawasee (0-2) will aim to pick up its first win this Saturday when the Lady Warriors travel to Westview High School. The varsity match is set to start at 1:30 p.m. There will be no junior varsity game.

Wednesday night’s junior varsity match up was won by Wawasee. Lady Warrior junior Sarah Olejniczak scored a goal in the final minute of play to give her team a 1-0 victory over the West Noble JV. The Wawasee JV team is now 2-0 on the season.

Breanna Ferm works around West Noble’s Jocelyn Rivera Wednesday night.