ELKHART — Any more Pepper and Concord might’ve been left in an uncontrollable sneezing jag.
Lola Pepper scored one goal and was credited with assists on each of the others as Warsaw erased an early deficit with four first-half tallies on its way to a 4-1 win over the Minutemen in Saturday afternoon’s Class 3A Elkhart Sectional girls soccer championship.
“I know a lot of the movement up top comes from me,” Pepper conceded, “but I also expect my team to do a lot, and they did. They’re the ones following the shots, they’re the ones scoring, so I’m proud of them. It makes me happy to see others scoring, because I enjoy those celebrations.”
There was plenty to celebrate Saturday.
The Lady Tigers (12-6-1) earned the program’s first sectional title in seven years and will host No. 13-ranked Penn (10-5-3) in a regional semifinal slated for Wednesday evening. The survivor of that game faces No. 6 Crown Point or No. 17 Valparaiso at 2 p.m. Saturday at Penn for the regional title.
The Kingsmen were 3-0 winners over visiting Warsaw on Sept. 19, but “it was the most dreadful we’ve played this year,” Tiger coach Clive Scott said. “We will play much better.”
Scott sounded like a man to be taken seriously on that promise — even if he was sporting pink-dyed hair.
Dying his hair was “the agreement I made if we beat Northridge,” Warsaw’s second-year coach said in reference to his team’s 1-0 victory over the No. 11 Raiders during Thursday’s semifinals, reversing a 2-0 loss to the Northern Lakes Conference champs just seven days earlier. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do before the next game, but it was pink hair today.”
“No, that’s it,” Pepper said of whether the players will make their coach do something more before Wednesday. “Pink hair’s always it.”
And Pepper is always around the action.
The Tigers’ equalizer against Concord came in the 20th minute when she sent a long free kick on goal that was stopped, before fellow senior Rachel Koorey pounced on the rebound for the score.
Seven minutes later, the Tigers went on top for good when freshman Natalie Hoeppner chipped in a shot on a scramble that resulted from Pepper’s corner kick to right in front of the goal mouth.
Pepper then upped the margin to 3-1 with 3:35 left in the first half when she weaved in and delivered a shot from about 18 yards along the right wing that glanced off the far post and bounced into the net.
The final goal came on sophomore Amy Escutia-Palacios’ rebound of a 20-yard rocket by Pepper just 33 seconds before the break.
“She’s the player of the season for us again this year, as she was last year,” Scott said of Pepper, who has committed to Butler University. “She plays any position, she’s a humble girl, she’ll do anything the coach says. She’s just a credit to the high school.”
Scott was pleased by the play of several others as well, particularly citing junior center defensive back Annaka Scholl.
“I thought she played exceptionally well. She held us together in the back,” Scott said. “I thought all the girls played well. I was really pleased that everyone got to play.”
Warsaw sustained a scare when starting junior defender Regann Finch went down due to injury less than six minutes into the game and was assisted off the field. She never returned, but Scott said “she’s fine. We just wanted to rest her for Penn.”
Concord (7-10-1), which lost 4-0 to the visiting Tigers during the regular season, struck first when senior Aniya Defrees put in a short shot in the 15th minute.
“The girls may have been a little complacent to start,” said Scott, whose club, besides avenging its loss to Northridge, also beat Goshen in a shootout in the sectional’s opening round after tying the RedHawks during the regular season, “but Concord came out strong, and fair play to them, they put up a great fight today.”
“I feel like we started slow,” Pepper concurred, “but as the game went on, we started picking it up. We were able to pick up the pressure when we knew we needed it the most.”
Warsaw closed with advantages of 17-6 in shots on goal and 7-2 in corner kicks. Senior Ellie Schenk made five keeper saves for the Tigers.
“The girls have worked very hard this year,” Scott said. “They deserved this.”