Warsaw Girls Win Soccer Sectional
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
Facing the NorthWood Lady Panthers (13-4-1) in the Sectional 7 championship game, the Lady Tigers (11-3-2) won 1-0, claiming the program’s seventh overall sectional title.
“I definitely want to continue the winning tradition here at Warsaw,” first-year Warsaw coach Peter Lucht said. “This is (sectional championship) No. 7 for Warsaw, so what an awesome job by the ladies, top-to-bottom. From the seniors that have been here for all four, then juniors, sophomores coming in wanting to take part in that as well.”
To win No. 7, the Lady Tigers had to defeat a team it fell to 2-1 on Aug. 29 in Nappanee, and it did so pretty convincingly, as NorthWood did not get a shot on goal.
“We looked back at the three games we lost this season, and we actually played against two 5-2 (offensive formation) teams,” Lucht said. “So we made a formation change foremost. The second thing was moving (freshman) Breck (Jackson) up a man-marking spot for (NorthWood senior) Val (Ostrowski). That’s an incredibly big responsibility, because Val is very, very talented. Breck did a phenomenal job.”
Ostrowski entered the game with 34 goals, one of which was scored against Warsaw earlier in the season.
In the rematch, she was subdued by Jackson, although she did have an open shot with 2:31 remaining from outside the box that sailed high.
Along with getting tailed by Jackson, the rest of the Warsaw defense was also chipping in against Ostrowski, including senior Clair Jackson, who had to move to the back line because of an injury to freshman Rachel McClelland.
“Clair, who’s been playing some center-midfield and some outside-midfield for us, she’s been a great player no matter where she’s been playing,” Lucht said. “But for her to step up and go into the center-back spot for us, that was incredible.”
While Breck Jackson was leading the defense, her older sister, senior Brooklyn Jackson, was helping to add the only goal of the game.
With the game looking destined for overtime, Brooklyn Jackson took a corner kick, which she placed perfectly in front of the net, where junior Danielle Hutcherson headed it past NorthWood sophomore goalkeeper Madilyn Eberle with 14:15 remaining.
“Brooklyn is incredibly accurate with her passes and shots,” Lucht said. “It’s one of the reasons she’s such a dangerous player.”
And the fact the combination of Jackson and Hutcherson supplied the winning goal was of no surprise to Lucht.
“(Sophomore Elizabeth VanWormer), Danielle, Brooklyn, they’ve all been involved so heavily on the creation of opportunities for us,” he said. “So, if a chance was going to fall, odds were it was going to come from (one of them).”
The goal propelled Warsaw into this week’s Goshen Regional, where it will face No. 14 Northridge (15-1-2) Wednesday after the 5:30 p.m. game between No. 10 South Bend St. Joseph (16-2-1) and Penn (14-4-1) at Goshen High School. The championship game will be Saturday at 7 p.m.
Warsaw and Northridge squared off Oct. 5 in Warsaw, with the Northridge Lady Raiders winning 3-0.
Following that contest, which granted Northridge it’s fifth-straight Northern Lakes Conference title, the coaches talked about this possible rematch and now Lucht has gotten his wish.
“Northridge is a phenomenal team,” Lucht said. “They went 7-0 in our conference, and I don’t think they had a goal scored against them in our conference. We’re not unaware of who they are. We are going to change some things up, without getting into too many specifics, so (Northridge coach Bill Redinger) gets an advance scout on us. But we are going to change some things up on them. Obviously, if we want a different result we’re going to have to.”
Without getting into specifics, Lucht did offer some general statements on what his team can do to have success against Northridge, which has gone 30-0-5 the past five years in the NLC and has shut out 14 opponents during its current 15-game winning streak.
“If we have some good possession, we have the players that can finish,” Lucht said. “If we can do some good things, possession-wise, we can get opportunities. We’re going to need to be very cleanly defensively too, because they’re obviously a talented team. We’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game.”
To even get to this point has been a feat for the Lady Tigers, who graduated nine seniors from last year’s squad, including all-time leading scorer Meredith Hollar, who’s now playing at Grace College.
“Not a whole lot of people gave us credit at the beginning of the year,” Lucht said. “The story line was, ‘How are you going to replace Hollar? You guys graduated, basically, a whole starting lineup.’”
Early in the year, those questions looked legit, as Warsaw got off to a 2-2 start.
Since then, the team’s gone 9-1-2 and posted eight shutouts.
“We’ve been working so much on ball movement, good possession and everything else,” he said about the turnaround. “We’ve got girls that are dangerous and we’ve got girls that are knowledgeable. If we play our game, moving the ball quickly, moving the ball well, making good decisions – we’re a dangerous team.”
With another sectional title under its belt, Warsaw will now look to capture its fourth regional title, and first since winning three straight between 2001 and 2003.
Graduating just two starting seniors from this year’s team, including goalkeeper Abby Schue who will join Hollar at Grace, Lucht has high hopes for the Warsaw girls soccer program moving forward.
“I went to (coach at North Central High School) in Indianapolis a few years before I came up to Warsaw, and the shirt they gave all the new players was full of sectional championships, regional championships, semistates, state championships and it literally covered the entire shirt,” Lucht said. “That’s kind of been my dream – to create a dynasty of a team. I thought, maybe for next year, have a shirt that says seven sectional championships and list the years on it. Regional appearances and those sort of things, going back and looking at records. Really just continue to build that program the girls want to be a part of, want to fight to be a part of. Get that competition up and let the girls coming in know now they're fighting for a position on a team that has tradition.”
WARSAW 1, NORTHWOOD 0
(Sectional 7, C'ship)
W – Danielle Hutcherson (Brooklyn Jackson) 66th min.
Shots – Warsaw 13, NW 6; Shots on Goal – Warsaw 6, NW 0; Saves – Warsaw (Abby Schue) 0, NW (Madilyn Eberle) 5; Fouls (Yellow Card) – NW 16, Warsaw 9 (Jackson); Offsides – Warsaw 0, NW 1; Corner Kicks – Warsaw 3, NW 2
Records: Warsaw 11-3-2, NW 13-4-1[[In-content Ad]]
Facing the NorthWood Lady Panthers (13-4-1) in the Sectional 7 championship game, the Lady Tigers (11-3-2) won 1-0, claiming the program’s seventh overall sectional title.
“I definitely want to continue the winning tradition here at Warsaw,” first-year Warsaw coach Peter Lucht said. “This is (sectional championship) No. 7 for Warsaw, so what an awesome job by the ladies, top-to-bottom. From the seniors that have been here for all four, then juniors, sophomores coming in wanting to take part in that as well.”
To win No. 7, the Lady Tigers had to defeat a team it fell to 2-1 on Aug. 29 in Nappanee, and it did so pretty convincingly, as NorthWood did not get a shot on goal.
“We looked back at the three games we lost this season, and we actually played against two 5-2 (offensive formation) teams,” Lucht said. “So we made a formation change foremost. The second thing was moving (freshman) Breck (Jackson) up a man-marking spot for (NorthWood senior) Val (Ostrowski). That’s an incredibly big responsibility, because Val is very, very talented. Breck did a phenomenal job.”
Ostrowski entered the game with 34 goals, one of which was scored against Warsaw earlier in the season.
In the rematch, she was subdued by Jackson, although she did have an open shot with 2:31 remaining from outside the box that sailed high.
Along with getting tailed by Jackson, the rest of the Warsaw defense was also chipping in against Ostrowski, including senior Clair Jackson, who had to move to the back line because of an injury to freshman Rachel McClelland.
“Clair, who’s been playing some center-midfield and some outside-midfield for us, she’s been a great player no matter where she’s been playing,” Lucht said. “But for her to step up and go into the center-back spot for us, that was incredible.”
While Breck Jackson was leading the defense, her older sister, senior Brooklyn Jackson, was helping to add the only goal of the game.
With the game looking destined for overtime, Brooklyn Jackson took a corner kick, which she placed perfectly in front of the net, where junior Danielle Hutcherson headed it past NorthWood sophomore goalkeeper Madilyn Eberle with 14:15 remaining.
“Brooklyn is incredibly accurate with her passes and shots,” Lucht said. “It’s one of the reasons she’s such a dangerous player.”
And the fact the combination of Jackson and Hutcherson supplied the winning goal was of no surprise to Lucht.
“(Sophomore Elizabeth VanWormer), Danielle, Brooklyn, they’ve all been involved so heavily on the creation of opportunities for us,” he said. “So, if a chance was going to fall, odds were it was going to come from (one of them).”
The goal propelled Warsaw into this week’s Goshen Regional, where it will face No. 14 Northridge (15-1-2) Wednesday after the 5:30 p.m. game between No. 10 South Bend St. Joseph (16-2-1) and Penn (14-4-1) at Goshen High School. The championship game will be Saturday at 7 p.m.
Warsaw and Northridge squared off Oct. 5 in Warsaw, with the Northridge Lady Raiders winning 3-0.
Following that contest, which granted Northridge it’s fifth-straight Northern Lakes Conference title, the coaches talked about this possible rematch and now Lucht has gotten his wish.
“Northridge is a phenomenal team,” Lucht said. “They went 7-0 in our conference, and I don’t think they had a goal scored against them in our conference. We’re not unaware of who they are. We are going to change some things up, without getting into too many specifics, so (Northridge coach Bill Redinger) gets an advance scout on us. But we are going to change some things up on them. Obviously, if we want a different result we’re going to have to.”
Without getting into specifics, Lucht did offer some general statements on what his team can do to have success against Northridge, which has gone 30-0-5 the past five years in the NLC and has shut out 14 opponents during its current 15-game winning streak.
“If we have some good possession, we have the players that can finish,” Lucht said. “If we can do some good things, possession-wise, we can get opportunities. We’re going to need to be very cleanly defensively too, because they’re obviously a talented team. We’re going to have to bring our ‘A’ game.”
To even get to this point has been a feat for the Lady Tigers, who graduated nine seniors from last year’s squad, including all-time leading scorer Meredith Hollar, who’s now playing at Grace College.
“Not a whole lot of people gave us credit at the beginning of the year,” Lucht said. “The story line was, ‘How are you going to replace Hollar? You guys graduated, basically, a whole starting lineup.’”
Early in the year, those questions looked legit, as Warsaw got off to a 2-2 start.
Since then, the team’s gone 9-1-2 and posted eight shutouts.
“We’ve been working so much on ball movement, good possession and everything else,” he said about the turnaround. “We’ve got girls that are dangerous and we’ve got girls that are knowledgeable. If we play our game, moving the ball quickly, moving the ball well, making good decisions – we’re a dangerous team.”
With another sectional title under its belt, Warsaw will now look to capture its fourth regional title, and first since winning three straight between 2001 and 2003.
Graduating just two starting seniors from this year’s team, including goalkeeper Abby Schue who will join Hollar at Grace, Lucht has high hopes for the Warsaw girls soccer program moving forward.
“I went to (coach at North Central High School) in Indianapolis a few years before I came up to Warsaw, and the shirt they gave all the new players was full of sectional championships, regional championships, semistates, state championships and it literally covered the entire shirt,” Lucht said. “That’s kind of been my dream – to create a dynasty of a team. I thought, maybe for next year, have a shirt that says seven sectional championships and list the years on it. Regional appearances and those sort of things, going back and looking at records. Really just continue to build that program the girls want to be a part of, want to fight to be a part of. Get that competition up and let the girls coming in know now they're fighting for a position on a team that has tradition.”
WARSAW 1, NORTHWOOD 0
(Sectional 7, C'ship)
W – Danielle Hutcherson (Brooklyn Jackson) 66th min.
Shots – Warsaw 13, NW 6; Shots on Goal – Warsaw 6, NW 0; Saves – Warsaw (Abby Schue) 0, NW (Madilyn Eberle) 5; Fouls (Yellow Card) – NW 16, Warsaw 9 (Jackson); Offsides – Warsaw 0, NW 1; Corner Kicks – Warsaw 3, NW 2
Records: Warsaw 11-3-2, NW 13-4-1[[In-content Ad]]
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