Warsaw Girls Soccer: Warriors No Match For Tigers
WARSAW — Domination.
That’s the one word that can be used describe Warsaw’s performance against Wawasee, it was total domination. The Class 2-A No. 18 Tigers went up early and never looked back, rolling to a 10-0 win on the pitch in Northern Lakes Conference play Saturday.
“Well, for starters, Warsaw is really good,” began Wawasee head coach Doug Heinisch. “We played the two best teams in the conference this week (Northridge and Warsaw) and I guess the best thing to be said with that is we got the out of the way.
“They’re good, they’re always good. We played them well at 2-0 up until about the four-minute mark of the first half and then we just ran out of a gas. Similar thing happened at Plymouth on Thursday.”
Wawasee was playing with out three of its usual contributing players (Meghan Beer, Olivia Birch and Haleigh Smarr) and the lack of depth took a toll early.
Warsaw, however, made sure to get a lead almost immediately so it could continue to attack throughout the contest and keep the Warriors on their heels.
Jule Frazzatta knocked it the team’s first goal of the day in the third minute. Delaney Taylor added the second goal for the home team with 21:22 left in the first half. There was another long lull in scoring for Warsaw until the final four minutes. That’s where the Tigers truly dominated.
Brenna Buhrt knocked in the third goal at 3:54. That was followed up by a goal from Abby Steffensmeier, leaving 3:27 to play. Brenna Shipley, No. 5 on the field, added the teams fifth goal as time expired in the half. The Tigers had all but won at that point.
“God’s blessed us, we’re a strong team,” offered Warsaw head coach Peter Lucht. “Despite the score, I do think Wawasee has improved this year. I heard that going in to this match and I saw here today. So, credit to them and that coaching staff and to their girls for working hard. There was a difference today in what each team brought to the table and that was reflected in the play.”
The second half only got better for the Tigers as they added another five goals. Mariah Rivera, Breck Jackson, Anna Sullivan, Sarah Ocock and Anna Grill all enjoyed goals in the final 40 minutes. That gave Warsaw 10 different goal scorers on the day.
Wawasee only had a handful of threats and when the Warriors did get looks, Warsaw’s defense was there to stop any damage from being done. From every angle, Warsaw was just the better squad and it showed.
Warsaw, winners of its last 10 matches, improves to 12-3 overall and goes to 6-0 in NLC play. The Tigers will host Argos on Tuesday and then travel to Northridge to play for the conference championship on Thursday night. The Class 2-A No. 12 Raiders are 12-1 overall and 6-0 in the NLC.
Wawasee hosts Elkhart Memorial Tuesday night and NorthWood on Thursday evening to wrap up NLC play.
Warsaw won the junior varsity contest by a 1-0 final. Sarah O’cock scored the lone goal of the match for the Tigers with five minutes left. The Warsaw JV improves to 4-7 overall and goes to 3-3 in NLC play.