Wawasee senior Amari Peete, left, and NorthWood junior Lizzie Hilderbrandt battle for control during Thursday night’s soccer sectional action. The Panthers topped the Warriors 4-0. InkFreeNews photo provided by Christopher Knight

By Keith Knepp
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — One week ago, in the concluding game of the regular season, NorthWood shut out Wawasee on Warrior Field 3-0. By the literal luck of the draw, the two were paired up again on Thursday evening in the semifinal round of Sectional 20, which also was contested on the turf in Syracuse. At the end of the night, NorthWood would walk off the pitch 4-0, but it seemed much closer for more than three-quarters of the match.

From the opening whistle, it was clear that Wawasee planned to employ the same tactic they did in the first meeting: set eight players on the defending part of the pitch and concentrating on keeping the Panthers out of the goal while giving less priority to actually trying to score on the other end.

Oddly enough, NorthWood failed to recognize the opportunities being handed to them on their offensive end and continually dropped the ball into their defensive half. This led to a few Wawasee chances to challenge NorthWood’s keeper, senior Lili Lomeli, during the first 20 minutes of the match.

The game remained scoreless through 25 minutes with Wawasee’s confidence in their play growing with each tick of the scoreboard clock. NorthWood sophomore Caitlin Knepp was taken down just outside the left side of the goal box which gave the Panthers a free kick chance. Junior Lizzie Hilderbrandt took the kick and just missed converting the shot unassisted as it banged off the crossbar. As the ball caromed back toward the turf, Knepp sliced in behind sophomore Warrior keeper Josalyn Kolberg and headed the ball into the net to put the first Panther tally on the scoreboard.

The goal didn’t create the anticipated momentum for NorthWood, as it failed to convert on many more of their first half chances. They took a 1-0 lead into halftime, but Wawasee was buoyed by the fact that they were still within a single goal of the favored Panthers.

The second half started off the same for NorthWood as it failed to capitalize on numerous looks at the Warrior goal. Panther shots kept sailing left, right and over the pipes, further enhancing the Warriors’ belief that they could find the equalizer and perhaps send the game into overtime and then perhaps penalty kicks to determine which side would move forward to Saturday’s championship match.

Eventually, the relentless pressure put on by NorthWood’s frontline found a crack, as junior Emma Martz found paydirt in the 63rd minute. The proverbial wind was visually taken out of the Warriors sail as shoulders began to sag and chins began to droop among the girls kitted in white. The feeling of defeat was amplified when Martz again found an opening in heavy traffic and scored her second goal of the night just five minutes after her first.

NorthWood’s scoring continued in the 76th minute when Hilderbrant, off a set play following a foul, found Knepp and Ari Topping streaking side-by-side toward the goal with no Warrior defender within five yards. Knepp controlled the pass from Hilderbrandt and fired the ball past Kolberg for her second tally of the match, which gave the contest its final score.

For the fourth consecutive year, NorthWood (7-5-3) will vie for a sectional championship against the DeKalb Barons, who eliminated Lakeland in the evening’s opening match 6-0. The game will be played at 2 p.m. Saturday in Syracuse.

It has become an annual war of attrition between NorthWood and DeKalb, with all three of the previous matches ending in a 1-0 final score. Last year DeKalb came out with the win to advance to the regional round while in 2017 and 2018 it was NorthWood that took home sectional trophies.