West Noble’s Eric Galarza (10) celebrates with his teammates after converting the clinching penalty try in a 2-2 (4-1 PK) win over Wawasee at the West Noble Boys Soccer Sectional Monday night. InkFreeNews photos by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

LIGONIER – The chalk was upheld, but both NorthWood and West Noble got to the semi-finals of the West Noble Boys Soccer Sectional in much different ways after the sun set Monday evening.

NorthWood 9, Lakeland 1

Once NorthWood got going, there was no looking back.

NorthWood’s Sebastian Guillen had three goals and two assists against Lakeland.

Needing 17 minutes to get its engines started, the afterburners kicked in on a hapless Lakeland defense that had no answers for NorthWood’s powerful offense.

After NorthWood opened with the match’s first four shots, Kaden Newcomer had a shot blocked, but the rebound went right to Andre De Freitas, who tucked home the first of a monster performance. Another deflection of a NorthWood shot had the same outcome, sitting in the back of the Lakeland net after Sebastian Guillen buried his chance.

De Freitas and Guillen would become responsible for the next six goals. Guillen would pot two more for a hat trick and add two assists while De Freitas would bury four more to end with five goals and 30 for the season, tying the all-time NorthWood goals record.

“Andre tied the record, but this really was a solid team performance,” said NorthWood head coach Brad Duerksen. “Competition in this sectional is going to be really tight and we can’t have the start we did. But once we got going, we played some very good soccer.”

By the time Lakeland got its first goal, it was 8-0, but the Lakers took Mason Douglas’ tally in the 55th minute, assisted by Ricardo Flores. NorthWood countered with its final goal from Joel Guzman.

Cam Iwena and Ryne Flickinger each had assists in the contest for the Panthers. NorthWood as a whole had 21 shots in the match to just five for the Lakers. Andrew Graber got the win in net for NorthWood, making two stops.

NorthWood (11-3-3) will meet West Noble in the semi-finals at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

“We know what we are facing,” Duerksen said. “In the good sense today, we got to rest some of our guys in the second half. We know anyone can win this title. It’s been a long season, and more than anything, we need to be mentally focused.”

West Noble 2, Wawasee 2 (West Noble 4-1 PK)

While NorthWood ran circles around Lakeland in the opener, West Noble and Wawasee went the distance, and then some, needing penalties to decide a winner as day turned to night.

Wawasee’s Niles Hodges buries a penalty kick in the second half against West Noble.

A fairly even first half yielded six scoring chances for West Noble in the first 30 minutes, and two goals. A sterling ball from Eric Galarza on a set piece from over 30 yards out went untouched into the net for the night’s first goal. Just over nine minutes later, a Josue Haro cross to All-Stater Henry Torres had the star forward make a nice touch to himself and bury the opportunity for a stunning 2-0 lead.

Where Wawasee would have been dead and buried in year’s past turned in the second half. The Warriors took four of the first five shots of the second 40, and on a breakthrough in the box, Salvador Carmona was pulled down for a penalty that Niles Hodges buried in the 68th minute.

Less than two minutes later, Wawasee’s Alejandro Alonso found space in a suddenly timid Charger defense and uncorked a rocket that spirited an equalizer.

“We were the ones asking the better questions in the second half, and we got two back in doing so,” said Wawasee head coach Jordan Sharp. “We decided to play more aggressive and that got us those two goals back.”

Wawasee would do a bang-up job in its defensive third, holding West Noble without a shot on goal for the final 20 minutes of regulation, then also the two seven-minute overtime periods save for a lazy Torres shot from midfield at the horn.

In the dreaded penalties, however, West Noble walked to the spot with confidence, nailing all four of its tries. Wawasee would miss two of its first three, and a capper from Galarza moved the defending sectional champions onto the semis.

“I’m not going to lie, this sucks, I hate penalty kicks,” Sharp said, whose team closes at 9-7-1. “This season, the guys stepped up and we won those winnable games, they stepped up and showed the can compete. I think they got that fuel they needed. It’s a great bunch of guys that cared for one another. But, I tell each class that they now have to set the tone for the next one.”