Eric Yankowski (8) takes a free kick for Wawasee during Saturday’s game at Warsaw. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

WARSAW — Sometimes one team is just better than the other. That was the case Saturday afternoon when Wawasee traveled to take on county and conference rival Warsaw. The host Tigers scored early and were able to hold off the Warriors in order to grab a 4-0 victory.

Things got going right away for Warsaw as Eric Ocock gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead following a free kick in the first two minutes of play. Warsaw established itself as the better team early and did not waver from that for the majority of the game.

“We’ve been prepared,” said Warsaw head coach Frank Courtois. “When you play top 20 teams like we do, coming to play this level, we were going to be the better side. We’ve been preparing. That’s why we looked like the better team today.”

The Tigers added two more goals before the half, one from Blake Burns and the last before the break from Cole Voss. The 3-0 lead was commanding in what proved to be a very physical and chippy game between the two familiar opponents.

The Warriors snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Tigers in last year’s regular season contest. Warsaw flipped the script in the sectional to eliminate the Warriors. Both games last season set the tone for another physical battle Saturday.

Wawasee had more than its fair share of opportunities to tie early and get back in the game late, but Warsaw keeper Tomas Rivera would not be denied his shutout. Rivera made several nice plays to keep Wawasee’s attempts out of his goal.

“We created chances in the first half,” began Wawasee head coach Jordan Sharp. “Specifically, what’s been causing us issues is miscommunication with our back line. We experienced that today in seeing that problem get worse during this game. I don’t think Warsaw out played us to the point where they caused too many issues for our back line . It was just a matter of miscommunication for us and we’ll be focusing on fixing that before the sectional.”

Warsaw added some insurance in the second half with a goal from Garrett Reinholt. Wawasee’s chances after the break were much less prominent.

The Warriors were frustrated with the defeat in a game they felt should have been closer. Wawasee won’t see the Tigers again unless the two meet in the sectional championship. That’s a rematch Sharp would welcome.

“I’d absolutely love to see them again. I’d love to get some vengeance,” Sharp stated. “I think we can play a better game against them. We had opportunities, they had opportunities, they put their chances away.

“I would look forward to seeing them again. We beat them last year then they knocked us out in the sectional, I’d like to flip that this year.”

Wawasee travels to Northridge and Warsaw, which improves to 5-8-2 overall and moves to 2-4 in NLC action, will host Carroll on Tuesday night.

Saturday was Senior Day for the Tigers and Coach Courtois offered some nice words on his senior class, even after the boys gave him a nice bath with a Gatorade bucket following the win.

“Somebody’s going to pay,” Courtois said with a laugh after getting soaked. “But, honestly, these are good kids, as you can tell. I love to be around them. We’ve been working together to get where we are right now. I really could not have asked for a better group of kids to come through this program.”

Warsaw won the junior varsity contest 5-1. Adam Brown scored two goals and Jorge Rico, Jacob Lalonde and Jose Lara each had one for the Tigers. Brown and Elian Mejia each had two assists and Kyle Hayward one for the JV Tigers, who are now 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the NLC.