Warsaw’s Anna Grill dribbles upfield while Noblesville’s Jewell Hensley defends during the Logansport Regional championship game Saturday night. (Photos by James Costello)

LOGANSPORT — Warsaw’s girls soccer team has become pretty adept at comebacks lately.

First the Lady Tigers rallied from behind not once but twice on the way to a repeat sectional championship opposite Huntington North last weekend. Then they battled back from a goal behind in the second half of their Logansport Regional semifinal with McCutcheon Saturday morning.

But Saturday night’s championship proved to be one comeback too many for even Warsaw, and the Tigers bowed out of the season with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of 3-A No. 5 Noblesville.

“I can’t speak enough about the heart of this team. We found ourselves down at halftime twice today — both times we at least brought ourselves back to tie,” said Warsaw coach Jon Hoover. “Doing it that way though, it takes a lot of energy. I would’ve hoped to get through that game this morning without having to spend our starters as much. Maybe that played a fact into it. I don’t know, but that was a great game for us to come from behind and get a win. To even get to play in this game tonight is a big deal.

“I’m pleased with the way we fought. We walk away from a game 2-1 and the initial thought is frustration, but we played some really good soccer tonight.”

The Tigers (14-5-3) played fairly evenly with the fifth-ranked Millers (14-2-3), and it showed in the shots on goal margin.

Warsaw registered 10 shots on goal to the Noblesville’s 12, but Noblesville got the final say when junior mid Jewell Hensley found freshman forward Jenna Chatterton with a through ball, and Hensley used her speed to get up the wing and send a shot far post and into the back of the net in the 71st minute. The Millers made that goal stand for nearly 10 minutes despite being issued a pair of yellow cards in the 77th minute, the Tigers’ last, best chance from midfielder Brenna Buhrt sailed wide with just 1:44 remaining, and Noblesville celebrated its second straight regional title and first in the three-class tournament.

Delaney Taylor settles a ball while Amber Wolf defends Saturday night.

“Noblesville is absolutely one of the fastest teams in the state. They’ve got a couple kids that, they were able to cycle through their subs, and (Jenna Chatterton) and (Carly Hudnall), the two of them were just flying on the field. They’re going to get their goals; that’s just the way it is. They’ve got that top end speed. I felt like our girls did an excellent job sticking with them,” Hoover said.

“I told them after the game, whenever you have two good teams playing each other, one team has to lose. Tonight just happened to be us. I think we play that team 10 times, they win five, we win five. It wasn’t our night to get the victory, but I thought we played really well.”

Keeley Hoopingarner put Noblesville on the scoreboard in the 28th minute, maneuvering around the box, then turning quickly and firing a rocket into the upper net to stake the Millers to a 1-0 lead.

Junior mid Anna Grill’s long free kick from around 40 yards out was saved by Millers keeper Amanda Carmosino less than a minute later, and Delaney Taylor’s volley caromed off the crossbar with no one to clean it up a little more than two minutes after that. Taylor chipped another shot at Carmosino through traffic as the Tigers continued to put the pressure on in the 33rd minute, but again the senior Noblesville keeper saved it. Another long free kick from Grill at the horn was stopped by Carmosino, and Warsaw trailed 1-0 at the half.

It took nearly 21 minutes before Taylor and the Tigers finally broke through.

Taylor found fellow sophomore Abby Steffensmeier late in the 61st minute, and Steffensmeier converted the equalizer with a low shot into the far corner and past the diving Carmosino to knot the score at 1-all.

That goal was Steffensmeier’s third of the day after a pair of scores — including the game-winner — in the regional semifinal and tied the program single-season record of 28. The assist represented Taylor’s second of the day and the 31st of her career, another program record-tying tally for the Lady Tigers.

Abby Steffensmeier finds room to maneuever while Kelsey Hughes defends in Logansport.

“Those two do a lot of us on the attacking half of the field,” said Hoover of Steffensmeier and Taylor. “Abby just worked so hard today. She plays the majority of the game, and she’s the one running side to side and I push her to work side to side, which she does. When I pull her out you see the look in her eye that she’s frustrated, but she’s also spent because she’s spending it for us. She worked really hard. That was a great ball put through the back line, and she just tucked it away with composure. It was a great finish.”

The score remained knotted for 10 minutes before Chatterton’s eventual game-winner in the 71st minute. Noblesville’s Abby Martin and Hoopingarner were both issued yellow cards as the game became physical late, but Warsaw couldn’t capitalize and closed out the season with the 2-1 loss.

The Tigers must now bid goodbye to a cast of seven seniors in keepers Chloe Snow and Kaitlyn Dailey, defenders Brenna Shipley, Alexandra Koontz and Emma Pena, midfielder Sarah Meade and forward Sydney Wiedeman, who rejoined her team this season after undergoing surgery to her left knee in the offseason.

Hoover couldn’t have asked for better role models for his talented roster of underclassmen.

“I really feel like the seniors this year, being my first year, made an amazing step up as far as leadership,” he said. “I’m looking at Sydney Wiedeman right now, who is possibly going to get another surgery at some point. She’s out here playing multiple minutes knowing that this is probably going to be her last time playing. That kind of work ethic just sets the pace for all of us. I’m glad our underclassmen got to see that group of seniors work through injuries, get back on the field the right way and spend themselves for their team. As a coach, to have a group of seniors set that kind of an example, you can’t ask for anything better than that.”

WARSAW 3, MCCUTCHEON 2
Before Warsaw’s showdown with Noblesville, the Tigers first had to get through McCutcheon in the morning game in Logansport.

Brenna Buhrt — whose hat trick powered the Tigers past Huntington North in the championship of the Fort Wayne South Side Sectional last week — gave her team the initial advantage on an Anna Sullivan helper, but McCutcheon took the lead with two goals in the last 10 minutes of the first half.

As she did in the championship, Steffensmeier scored the tying goal off the foot of Taylor just four minutes into the second half. Grill later found her with a through ball, and Steffensmeier finished off the eventual game-winner as the Tigers advanced opposite Noblesville, a 1-0 winner over Carroll.

“Our girls fought hard today to get this win,” Hoover stated. “We made some mistakes in the first half and paid the price, but as a team we decided that there was nothing we could do to change that. We entered the second half with a clean slate, and our team apparently wasn’t ready to be done yet for the season.”