Wawasee Girls Soccer: Westview Blanks Warriors
SYRACUSE — It was a tough afternoon for the Wawasee girls soccer team. The ladies welcomed in Westview and suffered their first loss of the season, 3-0, during a very wet and windy day. The young Wawasee team picked up wins over Lakeland and West Noble earlier this week, both by a score of 7-2. But the scoring attack was just not able to work its magic for the Warriors on Saturday.
Westview grabbed a 1-0 lead (26′) after missing on several early chances that were denied by Wawasee keeper Kayla White. Makayla Yoder was credited with the goal. Wawasee tried to capitalize on a few opportunities early in the game with big breaks by Leigh-Ann Shrack and Hannah Lancaster but could never get a good look. Westview carried its one-goal advantage into the break.
Wawasee was able to keep up with the visiting Warriors for much of the second half, but Westview did a nice job of keeping control of the tempo and keeping the ball near Wawasee’s end. White got a workout in goal for the home squad and was successful at denying Westview’s attack most of the time, but the visitors still picked up two more scores in the second half.
The determined play of seniors White, Shrack and Alyssa Bolyard led to encouraging play from several underclassmen. Among those standouts were Lancaster, Olivia Birch, Meghan Beer and Kendra Doerr.
Westview’s Yoder and Libbie Martin were causing plenty of problems for Wawasee all afternoon. Yoder had one of the second half goals while Martin was constantly making her presence known throughout the day. In the end it was Westview’s execution that Wawasee simply could not keep up with.
“It was a well-played game overall,” said Wawasee head coach Doug Heinisch. “Westview handled the basics better than we did and that allowed them to control the game. We had a few good opportunities but could not put any in the net.”
Wawasee (2-1) will play at Manchester on Tuesday.
Wawasee’s JV team fell 5-0 in a game that was called early due to heavy rainfall.