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After beginning Northern Lakes Conference play with a massive win over Plymouth on Tuesday, the Warsaw girls soccer team looked to keep the good times rolling on Thursday, returning home to take on fellow NLC foe NorthWood. The Lady Tigers got off to as quick a start as you could ask for and cruised the rest of the way, remaining undefeated with a 7-0 win.
It took just two minutes for the Lady Tigers to score the first goal of the game. Warsaw was incredibly aggressive in the early going, leaving their opponent barely any time to think when they had the ball. The pressure was clearly getting to the visitors, and after one turnover too many deep in their own territory, Evie Pepper found some room in the box and converted on the opportunity, off the back of a NorthWood defender, for the opener.
For the next 10 minutes, the home side came awfully close to doubling their lead multiple times. The Lady Panthers were still unable to generate anything at all on offense, and were playing the game trapped on their own side of the field. The Lady Tigers were happy to take advantage of this, and were able to keep the pressure on. However, these chances lacked the final ball necessary to really be threatening, and the game remained at 1-0.
With a little over 15 minutes left in the first half, Warsaw finally broke through once again. The flow of the game had changed very little to this point, as the home side had continued to dominate the possession while seriously tilting the field. After an impressive series of passes on the build up, the ball made it over to senior Amy Escutia. She needed three attempts, but she stuck with it and on her third shot, buried one into the back right corner. Even though it was just a two-goal difference, it felt like 20 the way this one had gone so far.
The onslaught continued minutes later, as not five minutes had passed before Lylah Williman got in on the action. In attack formation once again, the Lady Tigers used an uneven rush to throw the visitors off their game. Williman was dribbling up the middle, and instead of passing it off, she made the choice to put it on goal. It was the correct one, as the keeper had no chance.
Kiinzee Hartman (L) of NorthWood and Warsaw senior Lylah Williman scuffle for the ball during Thursday evening's game at Warsaw...Nieter
With a little over five minutes to go before the break, Escutia got her second goal of the half to go on what was an excellent cross from Pepper from just outside the box. The result was poetry, as Pepper’s ball soared perfectly over a pair of defenders, as well as the keeper, before landing perfectly at Escutia’s midsection, it took the senior just one touch to make it a 4-0 game.
Escutia wasn’t done, just two minutes later, she made it a hat trick on the night with a goal that looked almost identical to the first. This time, she was much closer to the center of the box, making the touch a lot tougher to get past the keeper. It didn’t matter, as this time, she put it off her right boot into the right corner, and the blowout was officially on with the score sitting at 5-0 at the break.
Despite the odds of coming back were shrinking by the moment, the Lady Panthers began the second half by showing some fight. The visitors were able to do a much better job keeping possession as the second set of 40 minutes got going, passing the ball with much higher accuracy, and even pushing the ball upfield a couple of times. The Warsaw defense, which had gone untested to this point, responded well to its first challenge of the night, turning their foes away each time.
Eventually, the Lady Tigers were able to slow down their opponents once again, and got back to controlling possession at the other end of the field. Holding a five-goal lead though, the home side’s urgency to add on to it had definitely diminished. Warsaw had no problem keeping the ball for long stretches near the NorthWood net, but their aggressiveness in trying to finish off those long spells with a score was not there. That’s not to say they did not take the attempts that were given to them, but the orange and black were not on the hunt like they were earlier.
With less than 15 minutes to go in the game, the home side did get an opportunity that was too good to miss on. This time, it was Pepper scoring her second goal of the game on an open look inside the box to make it 6-0. With less than five minutes to go, the home side added one last score to give the contest its final scoreline.
Warsaw (4-0) hosts Goshen on Tuesday.
