Tigers Win Soccer Season Opener At F.W. Concordia
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
Taking on Fort Wayne Concordia (0-1-0) in their season opener, the Warsaw Tigers (1-0-0) scored two unanswered goals in the second half to get a 3-1 victory.
“These kind of teams are difficult for us to play,” Warsaw coach Scott Bauer said of Concordia, a team his squad defeated 6-0 a year ago. “They're athletic and they're pretty direct. They're just waiting for us to make a mistake, and that's about how they're going to score.”
Concordia's lone goal came on a perfectly placed corner kick by sophomore Caleb Wedeven, but other than that, Warsaw, last year’s state runner-up, controlled the action.
Outshooting Concordia 26-3, and 11-2 in shots on goal, the Tigers never seemed to be in real danger, but were still knotted at 1-1 at the half, as junior Caleb Klusman had scored on a header from senior Matt Williams 15 minutes into the game.
In the second half, senior Miguel Rivera scored on a penalty kick with 36 minutes remaining, then senior Stephen Kolbe iced things when he booted a corner kick from junior Tito Cuellar with 14 minutes left to play.
“I thought we put some things together in the second half, after we changed our system a little bit,” Bauer said. “We came out with two strikers.
“I thought (sophomore) Brandon Reinholt and (senior) Stephen Kolbe were both very dangerous, so I wanted to keep them central,” he added. “We created enough opportunities to score a couple goals, and I thought we could have had four or five. On another day, that might happen.”
For a team looking to replace eight graduated seniors from last year's team that reached the Class 2A state finals, a three-goal effort wasn't too shabby.
Gone from last year's team are leading scorer Nathan Kolbe, as well as Diego Lopez, who scored 20 and 16 goals, respectively for the Tigers. Along with the graduated Grant Allbritten's six goals, the Tigers are attempting to replace 64 percent of last year's scoring.
Coaching a lot of new faces, Bauer is still feeling out what he likes with the 2013 version of the Tigers.
“It's a combination that's young,” he said of his opening-game lineup. “I don't know if I'll go back to it again. Brandon is a big body, Stephen's a big body (up front). In this case, we didn't need an extra midfielder, because normally I play a 4-2-3-1. So we just went to a 4-4-2, because we could against this team, which kept more attacking.”
Along with Reinholt's addition to the varsity lineup, Kolbe's a common face, but had been known as a defender.
This year, he's moved to forward and his speed created a lot of problems for Concordia's defense.
“I knew what I was going to do with (Stephen),” Bauer said of moving him from defense to offense. “It's the combination of (senior) Alex (Climaco) and junior (Caleb) Klusman in central defending that’s strong enough to get us through the year. I don't want to break that up, unless there's an emergency. One of the things we've talked about is, if a team puts pressure on us, we can pull Stephen from the front and make him a sweeper back there. That way, the combination of Alex and Caleb is still together. We'll probably end up doing that at some points this season, when there's five, 10 minutes left."
For now, Kolbe's more important as a striker, as the new Tigers squad looks to justify a No. 2 ranking that is largely based on last year's success.
And if this year's team thinks that No. 2 ranking is based on its merits, Bauer will quickly step in.
“We'll do the same thing we did last year,” Bauer said. “We'll sit them down – once I hear any of them talk about it – and let them know that's based on last year's (team), and they're going to have to make their own ranking and their own season. Like the teams of the past, I think this team can step up.”
The Tigers will get their next test Friday at IPFW's Hefner Fields, when it takes on Michigan's DeWitt High School in the Fort Wayne Snider Invitational.
WARSAW 3, F.W. CONCORDIA 1
W - Sam Allbritten (Matt Williams) 15th min.
C - Caleb Wedeven (corner kick) 31st min.
W - Miguel Rivera (penalty kick) 44th min.
W - Stephen Kolbe (Tito Cuellar) 66th min.
Shots – Warsaw 26, Concordia 3; Shots on Goal – Warsaw 11, Concordia 2; Saves – Warsaw (Peyton Long) 1, Concordia (Andrew Wick) 8; Penalties (Yellow Card) – Warsaw 13 (Zach Tucker), Concordia 18 (Alex Koenemann, Austen King); Corner Kicks – Warsaw 5, Concordia 6
Records: Warsaw 1-0-0, Concordia 0-1-0
JV – Warsaw 4, Concordia 3[[In-content Ad]]
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Taking on Fort Wayne Concordia (0-1-0) in their season opener, the Warsaw Tigers (1-0-0) scored two unanswered goals in the second half to get a 3-1 victory.
“These kind of teams are difficult for us to play,” Warsaw coach Scott Bauer said of Concordia, a team his squad defeated 6-0 a year ago. “They're athletic and they're pretty direct. They're just waiting for us to make a mistake, and that's about how they're going to score.”
Concordia's lone goal came on a perfectly placed corner kick by sophomore Caleb Wedeven, but other than that, Warsaw, last year’s state runner-up, controlled the action.
Outshooting Concordia 26-3, and 11-2 in shots on goal, the Tigers never seemed to be in real danger, but were still knotted at 1-1 at the half, as junior Caleb Klusman had scored on a header from senior Matt Williams 15 minutes into the game.
In the second half, senior Miguel Rivera scored on a penalty kick with 36 minutes remaining, then senior Stephen Kolbe iced things when he booted a corner kick from junior Tito Cuellar with 14 minutes left to play.
“I thought we put some things together in the second half, after we changed our system a little bit,” Bauer said. “We came out with two strikers.
“I thought (sophomore) Brandon Reinholt and (senior) Stephen Kolbe were both very dangerous, so I wanted to keep them central,” he added. “We created enough opportunities to score a couple goals, and I thought we could have had four or five. On another day, that might happen.”
For a team looking to replace eight graduated seniors from last year's team that reached the Class 2A state finals, a three-goal effort wasn't too shabby.
Gone from last year's team are leading scorer Nathan Kolbe, as well as Diego Lopez, who scored 20 and 16 goals, respectively for the Tigers. Along with the graduated Grant Allbritten's six goals, the Tigers are attempting to replace 64 percent of last year's scoring.
Coaching a lot of new faces, Bauer is still feeling out what he likes with the 2013 version of the Tigers.
“It's a combination that's young,” he said of his opening-game lineup. “I don't know if I'll go back to it again. Brandon is a big body, Stephen's a big body (up front). In this case, we didn't need an extra midfielder, because normally I play a 4-2-3-1. So we just went to a 4-4-2, because we could against this team, which kept more attacking.”
Along with Reinholt's addition to the varsity lineup, Kolbe's a common face, but had been known as a defender.
This year, he's moved to forward and his speed created a lot of problems for Concordia's defense.
“I knew what I was going to do with (Stephen),” Bauer said of moving him from defense to offense. “It's the combination of (senior) Alex (Climaco) and junior (Caleb) Klusman in central defending that’s strong enough to get us through the year. I don't want to break that up, unless there's an emergency. One of the things we've talked about is, if a team puts pressure on us, we can pull Stephen from the front and make him a sweeper back there. That way, the combination of Alex and Caleb is still together. We'll probably end up doing that at some points this season, when there's five, 10 minutes left."
For now, Kolbe's more important as a striker, as the new Tigers squad looks to justify a No. 2 ranking that is largely based on last year's success.
And if this year's team thinks that No. 2 ranking is based on its merits, Bauer will quickly step in.
“We'll do the same thing we did last year,” Bauer said. “We'll sit them down – once I hear any of them talk about it – and let them know that's based on last year's (team), and they're going to have to make their own ranking and their own season. Like the teams of the past, I think this team can step up.”
The Tigers will get their next test Friday at IPFW's Hefner Fields, when it takes on Michigan's DeWitt High School in the Fort Wayne Snider Invitational.
WARSAW 3, F.W. CONCORDIA 1
W - Sam Allbritten (Matt Williams) 15th min.
C - Caleb Wedeven (corner kick) 31st min.
W - Miguel Rivera (penalty kick) 44th min.
W - Stephen Kolbe (Tito Cuellar) 66th min.
Shots – Warsaw 26, Concordia 3; Shots on Goal – Warsaw 11, Concordia 2; Saves – Warsaw (Peyton Long) 1, Concordia (Andrew Wick) 8; Penalties (Yellow Card) – Warsaw 13 (Zach Tucker), Concordia 18 (Alex Koenemann, Austen King); Corner Kicks – Warsaw 5, Concordia 6
Records: Warsaw 1-0-0, Concordia 0-1-0
JV – Warsaw 4, Concordia 3[[In-content Ad]]
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