Garrett’s Julio Aburto celebrates after the Railroaders upset Wawasee, 3-1, in the Wawasee Boys Soccer Sectional championship game. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – Garrett boys soccer head coach Doug Klopfenstein had a clear message to his club at halftime of the Wawasee Boys Soccer Sectional championship game against Wawasee. Sitting on a 2-1 lead, Klopfenstein looked his kids in the eye and stated, “We don’t need to win the game anymore. We need to win a half. Go out and win it!”

With the determination and the carrot tantalizingly within reach, Garrett added an insurance goal and won the half 1-0, the game 3-1 and the sectional championship, No. 1 for Klopfenstein and the Railroaders.

Wawasee’s Ryan Edington keeps his eye on the ball.

“This is the team I thought we had, but it took us 14 or 15 games to get there,” said Klopfenstein afterwards, who got the ice water bath following the win from his ecstatic club. “But we got there. I told them coming in, don’t hope you win, win because you can.”

Garrett stunned Wawasee by putting just three shots on target in the first half, but two of them went in the back of the net. Wawasee opened the scoring in the ninth minute when a poor Railroader clearance out of the back found its way to Chris Pena, who one-timed a missile into the net for the lead. But Garrett kept holding on, and made one of its defensive clearances work in the 25th minute. Working the ball up the wing, Austin Leech dribbled into the Wawasee 18, lofting a pass to Kaleb Samons who somehow found himself wide open in front of the net. The tap-in stunned the home side and knotted the score at one.

With five minutes before the half, Garrett scored maybe its most important goal in school history. Hunter Nodine secured the ball on the left wing and sprinted into space, as Wawasee cut off his angle assuming he would try to cross into the middle, Nodine fired off a tremendous cross-goal shot that beat Dillon Drake high side and gave the Railroaders a 2-1 advantage.

“We have been bleeding goals all year so we decided not to play the short ball but to counter to our wings and move the ball up the sides and try to catch them on the counter, and that worked today,” Klopfenstein said. “Samons’ goal was great for us, got us feeling good and Nodine’s shot was absolutely huge.”

Garrett goalkeeper Avery Morrison pulls a chance away from Ryan Edington’s attempt at a header.

Wawasee had outshot Garrett 10-5 in the first half and 16-10 overall, but left two golden chances off the board. Garrett keeper Avery Morrison blanketed a point-blank attempt from Ryan Edington, and a corner kick to a rising Eric Yankosky had his header just miss into the side netting in what looked to be a dead-on attempt.

Wawasee head coach Jordan Sharp sensed his team needed a lift and moved his lineup around in the second half, offering up Yankosky from the sweeper position to an attacking mid and had Pena pushed forward begging for some production. But as Wawasee bowed upward trying to get an equalizer, Garrett continued its trend of making good on its limited opportunities. A poor clearance from the Wawasee end found Kenan Kennedy in the 76th minute, who beat Drake for the dagger.

“We found that high gear right at the end of the regular season and these guys really felt like we had a legit shot to get to the regionals,” said a dejected Sharp. “We got that first goal from Pena there early and I think our kids felt like we had it in the bag. For whatever reason, we got too comfortable and credit Garrett, they made their two or three chances hold up.”

Wawasee is still only with one sectional championship, happening way back in 2002 when the team reached the semi-state. The Warriors, which shut out Lakeland and NorthWood to reach the final, close at 7-8-3 and lose a ton of talent in the likes of Yankosky, Edington and five other seniors. Sharp wasn’t sure what to make of it as he huddled with his squad for the last time as Garrett celebrated at midfield.

“It’s going to be really hard walking off the field with these guys,” Sharp said. “We’re bummed. I saw regional potential with us and so it’s hard to have a conversation with them afterwards trying to find good things to say. They’re disappointed, I’m disappointed. Sure we can talk about opportunities created and all that, but at the end of the day it was 3-1 Garrett. Kind of feels like a breakup or a funeral, the seniors are done. For the younger guys, I told them big shoes to fill, season is over and it went way too fast. Always does. Don’t like how it ended.”

Garrett (9-8-1) will take on Hammond Bishop Noll (11-2-1) next Saturday at the Marian Regional, Noll beating Griffith, 2-1, in the Griffith Sectional championship. Also feeding into the regional are Hanover Central, which beat West Lafayette 3-0, and South Bend St. Joe, which beat South Bend Washington 1-0.

Wawasee’s Eric Yankosky drives a header chance at goal, just missing the target in the first half against Garrett.