Warriors Win Regional
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Dale [email protected]
As was the case in last week's sectional, though, Wawasee scored when it had to and topped their Northern Lakes Conference rival 1-0 via penalty kicks after 80 minutes of scoreless regulation play and two seven-minute overtime sessions that didn't produce any scoring.[[In-content Ad]]"That's been the tale at the end of our season, we just haven't put the ball in the net," said Wawasee coach Dodd Cunningham. "It was the same today. We're getting about 20 shots per game, but we might only get one goal."
Against the Raiders Wednesday night, Wawasee took 13 shots, while Northridge took four.
Wawasee, which fell 2-1 to Northridge during the regular season, improved to 15-4-1 on the season and will play No. 6 Penn (18-2) at 11 a.m. EDT in Saturday's Crown Point Semistate. The Kingsmen advanced by beating Argos 2-1 in the South Bend Regional championship.
Lake Central (16-4-1) and Valparaiso (15-5) will play in the second semifinal game, with the winners meeting at 8 p.m. EDT.
The regional title was the second consecutive for the Warriors, who fell 5-0 to Marian in last year's semistate.
With a number of players returning from last year's regional championship team, Cunningham said he and his team believed they could get back to the semistate this season.
He said their goal now is to prove they belong.
"We only lost three seniors from last year's team," said Cunningham. "We felt like with the girls we had coming back and the girls we had coming in we could be stronger than last year. We knew we were capable of getting back there."
What got the Warriors back to the semistate was strong defensive play.
While Wawasee may not have been able to capitalize on as many opportunities as it would have liked in the postseason, the opposition hasn't been able to either.
In winning the Goshen Sectional championship, Wawasee gave up just one goal. Entering Saturday's semistate, the Warriors have won their past three games 1-0.
"Northridge did a nice job stopping our forward momentum," said Cunningham. "Our defense has been fairly strong. Our midfield keeps pressure off the defense, but the defense answers when its challenged."
Such was the case Wednesday, setting up 94 minutes of scoreless action.
In the penalty kicks session, junior Kylee Ort replaced freshman Amy Walker in the goal for the Warriors.
As his team celebrated with its fans after the exciting win, Cunningham praised Ort for having quick reactions, as she turned away three Raider penalty kicks.
"Kylee has quick reactions," said Cunningham. "We use her in the field, she's a great player, and she has really quick reactions in the goal."
Ort also footed one of the three penalty kick goals Wawasee scored.
Francisca Hoffman and Brennan McAdams scored the other two penalty kick goals for the Warriors, with Hoffman's tying the session at 1-all and McAdams' giving Wawasee the win.
With the loss, Northridge finished the season with a 16-2-2 record.
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As was the case in last week's sectional, though, Wawasee scored when it had to and topped their Northern Lakes Conference rival 1-0 via penalty kicks after 80 minutes of scoreless regulation play and two seven-minute overtime sessions that didn't produce any scoring.[[In-content Ad]]"That's been the tale at the end of our season, we just haven't put the ball in the net," said Wawasee coach Dodd Cunningham. "It was the same today. We're getting about 20 shots per game, but we might only get one goal."
Against the Raiders Wednesday night, Wawasee took 13 shots, while Northridge took four.
Wawasee, which fell 2-1 to Northridge during the regular season, improved to 15-4-1 on the season and will play No. 6 Penn (18-2) at 11 a.m. EDT in Saturday's Crown Point Semistate. The Kingsmen advanced by beating Argos 2-1 in the South Bend Regional championship.
Lake Central (16-4-1) and Valparaiso (15-5) will play in the second semifinal game, with the winners meeting at 8 p.m. EDT.
The regional title was the second consecutive for the Warriors, who fell 5-0 to Marian in last year's semistate.
With a number of players returning from last year's regional championship team, Cunningham said he and his team believed they could get back to the semistate this season.
He said their goal now is to prove they belong.
"We only lost three seniors from last year's team," said Cunningham. "We felt like with the girls we had coming back and the girls we had coming in we could be stronger than last year. We knew we were capable of getting back there."
What got the Warriors back to the semistate was strong defensive play.
While Wawasee may not have been able to capitalize on as many opportunities as it would have liked in the postseason, the opposition hasn't been able to either.
In winning the Goshen Sectional championship, Wawasee gave up just one goal. Entering Saturday's semistate, the Warriors have won their past three games 1-0.
"Northridge did a nice job stopping our forward momentum," said Cunningham. "Our defense has been fairly strong. Our midfield keeps pressure off the defense, but the defense answers when its challenged."
Such was the case Wednesday, setting up 94 minutes of scoreless action.
In the penalty kicks session, junior Kylee Ort replaced freshman Amy Walker in the goal for the Warriors.
As his team celebrated with its fans after the exciting win, Cunningham praised Ort for having quick reactions, as she turned away three Raider penalty kicks.
"Kylee has quick reactions," said Cunningham. "We use her in the field, she's a great player, and she has really quick reactions in the goal."
Ort also footed one of the three penalty kick goals Wawasee scored.
Francisca Hoffman and Brennan McAdams scored the other two penalty kick goals for the Warriors, with Hoffman's tying the session at 1-all and McAdams' giving Wawasee the win.
With the loss, Northridge finished the season with a 16-2-2 record.
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