Morgan Stickley and NorthWood are charging ahead to its first-ever regional appearance this Saturday after winning the Lakeland Sectional this past weekend. (Photos by Mike Deak)

It’s not a new thing for Warsaw to be preparing into the second week of the state soccer postseason. But it surely is for NorthWood. Either way, the boys and girls soccer teams from the Kosciusko County seat are excited to get another week to prove themselves while the girls from Nappanee are looking to embrace the pace.

No. 15 NorthWood Girls Soccer (12-4-2) v. No. 14 West Lafayette (13-6) at Plymouth, 10 a.m.

It’s a whole new world for NorthWood girls soccer, finally breaking through with a sectional championship after an eternity of near misses. Coach Phil Ummel won his first title in eight tries Saturday night after even a rainstorm couldn’t stop NorthWood in a 4-2 penalty shootout win over DeKalb Saturday night at the Lakeland Sectional.

NorthWood, which comes into the regional winners of its past four matches, hasn’t allowed a goal in that stretch. The Lady Panthers have enjoyed the craftsmanship in net from Kira Robinson, who has pitched 13 shutouts this season, all 12 of NorthWood’s wins coming via an impressive clean slate.

“If they ever get on the board, there will be a split second where I will be like man, there were different ways where I could have stopped the goal,” stated Kira Robinson of facing possible adversity against West Lafayette, “After that my focus will be on encouraging my team and bringing back the fight.”

On the offensive side of the ball, the spoils have gone to plenty, but Kali Parisi and Avery Bontrager each lead the team with 13 goals and Morgan Stickley has potted nine goals, six of which coming in the last six matches.

“I definitely think some of us will be nervous, I know I personally am already, but we want to go in like it’s just another game,” said Stickley. “We just want to go as far as we can. We have talked about what we need to do to be in the game. It took us a long time to get going against Wawasee (in the sectional semi-final) and same thing with DeKalb. We know in a regional we can’t do that. We have to be ready to go right away.”

West Lafayette comes into the regional on fire, sending 18 goals into the net in three wins at its own sectional. The Red Devils have poured in 69 goals this season and are led by Katy Penquite (22 goals, nine assists), Annaliese Givan (16/8) and Madeline Lynam (12/12).

“Playing the NLC definitely is a great preparation for tournament play,” said NorthWood boss Phil Ummel. “We see a lot of good teams and a lot of good players. We’d like to think we present a challenge for teams defensively. We hope to make it a challenge for them. If we’ve learned anything about the season, we hope to put it to good use Saturday.”

No. 4 South Bend St. Joe and No. 17 Highland play in the second game. The winners will come back for a 7 p.m. final.

Warsaw Girls Soccer (13-4-3) v. McCutcheon (11-7-2) at Logansport, 10 a.m.

Anna Grill and Warsaw will take on McCutcheon in Logansport.

The run to regional was built by Buhrt, Brenna Buhrt to be specific. The magic foot of the Warsaw midfielder netted all three goals of Warsaw’s 3-2 overtime win over Huntington North at the Fort Wayne South Side Sectional. Warsaw won its seventh sectional title in eight years and 10th overall.

Warsaw has made its hay this season with a very balanced attack and a possession-based approach. Five different players have scored at least five goals for the Lady Tigers, led by Abby Steffensmeier (25) and Buhrt (16). Delaney Taylor (9), Anna Grill (7) and Brenna Shipley (5) have also lit it up, Taylor shifting gears from a scorer to facilitator with 16 assists after scoring 19 goals as a freshman last fall.

McCutcheon comes in after knocking off a perennially powerful Lafayette Harrison squad, 1-0, in the finals of the Harrison Sectional. The Mavericks also have three scorers in double figures, all juniors, in Kassidy Crowe (17), Riley Nicol (12) and Ashleigh Sincebaugh (12). Winners of its past four games, the Mavs allowed just one goal in its three sectional wins and have pitched nine shutouts.

“McCutcheon is a team that is getting hot at the right time,” noted Warsaw head coach Jon Hoover. “Earlier in the season they lost to Harrison 4-0, and then lost to them again 3-2. For them to come back in the sectional final to beat them in their third matchup of the season shows their grit. There are a few in game adjustments that we are ready to make on Saturday depending on how McCutcheon decides to defend us, but our objectives will not change. We want to possess the ball for the majority of the game and force our opponents to chase us.”

No. 5 Noblesville and Fort Wayne Carroll play in game two. The winners will come back from a 7 p.m. final.

Warsaw Boys Soccer (13-5-2) v. No. 3 Lafayette Harrison (16-1-2) at Kokomo, 10 a.m.

Garrett Reinholt and Warsaw will have their hands full with Lafayette Harrison in Kokomo.

For over a decade, Warsaw was the standard bearer in boys soccer in the area. Winning 11 sectional titles from 2002-13, the Tigers also won seven regional titles and made a pair of state finals appearances in 2010 and 2012. But for three straight years, Warsaw couldn’t get out of the sectional, until this past Saturday when Warsaw bumped Homestead, 3-0, at home to win the program’s 13th sectional crown.

Six different Tigers scored in the sectional run, with both Blake Burns and Jorge Rico tallying two goals in the 9-1 aggregate in wins over Fort Wayne South, Huntington North and Homestead. For the season, Burns and Eric Ocock have combined to tally 18 goals and 11 assists to lead the Tigers.

The ability to play all three games at home suited Warsaw just fine, but the regional will shift to Kokomo, and the competition will get severely tougher. Warsaw draws Lafayette Harrison in the morning game, the Raiders coming in 12-0-2 since its only loss on Aug. 29 to McCutcheon, which it avenged with a 2-0 win in the Logansport final.

“I don’t know anything about them,” said Warsaw head coach Frank Courtois of Harrison, noting he hasn’t seen them play since he took in a semi-state game two years ago.

Warsaw will need to get familiar very quickly with Jakub Hall, who is among the finest scorers in the state and the country. Hall has scored 39 goals and ranks third in the state, and has eight assists to boot. Thys Call is a quality complimentary player with 15 goals and 13 assists.

“The key to success for my team on Saturday is that they come to play, stay focused and play our game,” Courtois said. “Our focus has been teamwork, working hard, focused at practice to carry over into our game on Saturday.”

No. 2 Hamilton Southeastern and Fort Wayne Northrop play in the bracket’s second match. The winners come back for a 7 p.m. final.