A September match between the Warsaw and Goshen girls soccer teams resulted in a 1-1 tie after a hard-fought match. Tuesday night, the two teams met for a second time on a much bigger stage: the opening round of the 3A girls soccer sectional tournament at Elkhart High School. With a winner having to emerge this time around, it came down to penalty kicks, with the Lady Tigers winning 5-3 after a 0-0 tie.
Warsaw’s Haidyn Elliott began the game with a bang, unleashing an early shot on net that had to be saved in the opening minute of the match. Goshen was quick to add a chance of their own, earning a corner kick two minutes later that forced keeper Ellie Schenck to make a play on it. This first few minutes of the game was indicative of how the opening stage of the game would play out, with each team controlling the ball and getting their fair share of chances.
The Lady Tigers put a few more shots up over the next few minutes, but none of them were on target. Nevertheless, Warsaw was beginning to control the game a bit more, forcing the Lady RedHawks to play some defense.
Despite the long spells of possession for the Lady Tigers, Goshen was always a threat to get something going offensively. The Lady RedHawks were quick to launch a counterattack whenever they had the chance to do so, although they were unable to crack the code of the Warsaw back line, which was doing a great job keeping their opponents at bay.
Soon, the midway point in the first half had come and gone without any scoring taking place. While both teams were still making runs towards the goal, the final ball was lacking for both sides, resulting in not a whole lot of shots going up despite the action being fast paced.
With a little under 15 minutes to go in the half, Goshen put together a series of chances that nearly put them in front. One shot roared just over the crossbar, while moments later, Schenck was forced to make a save on a redirected attempt. While the Lady Tigers had controlled a spell earlier in the match, the Lady RedHawks were coming on strong as it went along.
Lola Pepper, who was putting together a fantastic game of defense up to this point, made one of the most important plays of the game with a little under eight minutes to go in the half. With a Goshen corner coming in hot, she leaped up and headed it out of danger while surrounded by three different Goshen players to keep things level.

    Maneuvering past Goshen players, sophomore Lylah Williman maintains control of the ball during Tuesday night's sectional game at Elkhart...Nieter
But perhaps the best chance of the first half came with four minutes to go, as a perfect lead pass saw Goshen’s Jiana Camacho break free past the defense. Schenck was forced to make a fantastic save, which she did, but had to deal with a rebound as well. She eventually was able to get the ball out of danger as the game remained scoreless.
It would remain so as the first half came to a close. For the second time this season, a meeting between the two teams would head into halftime tied 0-0.
Goshen remained on the offensive as the second half got going, keeping the ball on the Warsaw half of the field for the majority of the first five minutes. Even still, the first big chance of the half came seven minutes in as a shot by Elliot forced a leaping save by the Lady RedHawk keeper.
That seemed to jumpstart the Lady Tigers, as the team began winning the 50/50 balls more often while also controlling possession as they did earlier. Despite this, time continued to tick away without the game’s first goal being scored.
Soon, the midway point in the second half had been reached and the tie was no closer to being broken. The Lady RedHawks came awfully close once again, with a free kick not too far outside of the box resulting in an attempt that bounced harmlessly off of the post and into the arms of Schenck.
A corner kick for Warsaw didn’t yield anything either, as the game remained scoreless with just ten minutes remaining in regular time. Another shot that just barely went over the crossbar for Goshen was quickly followed by a run by Elliot resulting in the same thing. With seven minutes left, a Lady RedHawk shot went off the crossbar as somehow, still no goals had gone in.
As was the case earlier in the season, 80 minutes was not enough to declare a victor. Extra time would be needed as the game remained tied at 0-0.
The first half of extra time wouldn’t produce the opening goal either, as despite a few chances from both sides, neither was able to find the back of the net. The second set of seven minutes wouldn’t produce a winner either, meaning penalty kicks were required to determine a winner.
After being denied for 94 minutes, Warsaw shined during the shootout. The Lady Tigers sank all five of their kicks, while Goshen missed one, to advance the Lady Tigers into the semifinals. Lylah Williamson made the final one to ice it.
Warsaw (10-6-1) will face off against NLC Champion Northridge on Thursday.