Wawasee celebrated its seven seniors on Saturday afternoon. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

Seniors Fit To Be Tied

The Wawasee boys soccer team and its fans celebrated the team’s seniors on Saturday afternoon and the seniors gave the fans something to celebrate in return, kind of.

Senior Addison Dumford works the ball up field for the Warriors.

The Warriors played a solid game from start to finish but visiting South Bend Riley was just as solid. The two teams played to a unsatisfying but well-deserved 1-1 tie.

Riley jumped to a 1-0 lead with a goal in the 21′ but the Warriors were not discouraged. Senior Luis Camargo took an assist from Carlos Camargo and netter and equalizer with just over six minutes remaining in the first half.

Despite a valiant effort, and several close shots, from both teams the game would end in a tie. That would not ruin the post game ceremony for the seniors as head coach Jordan Sharp thanked them for their dedication to the program.

“I love our senior class,” Sharp said in a post game interview. “We definitely wanted the win today but I can’t fault our guys for anything. They all brought a great game today. Our seniors played their hearts out, and that’s what we’ve grown accustomed to with them.”

Wawasee (2-1-2) will play Wednesday night when it hosts Culver Academy at 6:45 p.m.

Concord Makes Quick Work Of Wawasee

Savannah Schwartz cuts off a Concord pass.

It was another rough day on the turf for the Wawasee girls soccer team.

The Lady Warriors were one again outplayed by its Northern Lakes Conference counterpart Concord. The visiting Minutemen routed Wawasee 9-0 on Saturday.

Five goals in the first half were more than enough to give Concord the victory but the visiting team just kept pouring it on in the second half. Four more goals, including an impressive 35-yard netter, highlighted Concord’s second half.

“Concord is a good program,” said head coach Doug Heinisch. “That is the kind of program that we need to aim to be. We were a little intimidated today but we have to put it behind us and move on.”

Wawasee falls to 1-4 on the season and will host Argos on Thursday for senior night, starting at 5 p.m.

Warriors Finally Get Out And Run

After watching all of the other fall sports teams start their seasons the boys and girls cross country team finally got to show what they had in competition at the Prairie Heights Invite on Saturday morning.

Zach Cockrill led the boys on the course with a time of 18:03, good enough for a top-10 finish. Sam Griner (18:59), Eric Diaz (19:07), Brady Robinson (19:21), Stori Bright (20:54), Marcos Mejia (22:20) and Jaxon Bame (20:41) rounded out the varsity times for the boys team.

“It was nice to get our first meet in,” stated head coach Doug Slabaugh. “Several guys ran a lot better compared to this meet last year.”

Sarah Harden (21:59) led the girls squad on Saturday. Courtney Linnemeier had an off day with a time of 22:44 while freshman Aubrey Kuhn did fine in her first meet with a time of 22:29. Molly Swartz (23:40), Elizabeth Zorn (24:02) and Bailey Schroeder (24:33) rounded out the girls varsity times. Yanelly Pizana took first place in the junior varsity meet with a time of 22:36.

“You could tell it was our first meet,” Slabaugh said of his girls team. “Compared to other teams that have ran once or twice, you could tell that this was our first time out. But we still had good races out of Sarah (Harden) and Aubrey (Kuhn) and it was good to see Yanelly win the JV race.”

Both team will run next Saturday at the Marion Invite, an even both teams won in 2013, at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Wawasee Football Wins Again

For the third time this week the Warrior football program was victorious. This time it was the junior varsity football team that claimed a win.

Wawasee shutout West Noble 26-0 to move to 2-0 on the season.

Noah Wadkins scored twice on the ground while Michael Katzer added a rushing score of his own. Zach McKee had a pick six to help the Warrior effort. Chandler Ritter and Alex Kyi also had interceptions on the day for Wawasee.

“Our offense made great progress from last week,” remarked JV coach Tyson Kaase. “I was also proud of our defense getting delivering their second shutout of the season.”