SYRACUSE - In the cold and rain of Saturday morning, a Wawasee celebration for the girls soccer team turned into frustration within a 25-second span.
Trailing 1-0, Wawasee sophomore Mallory Rondeau dribbled past the Warsaw Lady Tigers defense to score a breakaway goal, tying the game at 1-1 with 4:26 remaining.Following brief excitement, Warsaw senior Emily Hickerson put an end to the party, scoring with 4:01 left in the game, leading the road team to a 2-1 Northern Lakes Conference win in Syracuse.
"Those last four minutes of the game, or five minutes, can be dangerous," Wawasee coach Dodd Cunningham said. "You get a goal like that, and tie it up, it can kind of take the girls out of the game for a minute or so. They're exciting about the goal, but then they don't pay enough attention to controlling the rest of the play. One breakdown, and they score a game back on us."
The goal, coupled with a Kelly Wildman goal in the 29th minute, gave Hickerson and the rest of her classmates a long-awaited win over the Warriors.
"Our seniors have never beaten Wawasee, so they're really excited," Warsaw coach Dan Miller said. "For senior Emily Hickerson to score the game-winning goal, that even makes it sweeter for her."
Following the Rondeau score, it appeared Wawasee (6-6-1, 2-4 NLC) had fought back to stave off the loss. As it was, Miller was proud to see his Lady Tigers (8-6-1, 3-3-1 NLC) stick with it.
"We showed great resilience responding to that goal," he said. "We talk a lot about not hanging your head after something doesn't go your way. For them to show their resilience and composure to come back and get a goal shortly after Wawasee had a goal was huge."
After back-to-back seasons of dominating teams, Cunningham has seen his team return to the conference pack this year.
"They've had the potential to be a strong team, but we've lost some good girls to graduation over the past couple of seasons," Cunningham said. "This past year, we lost a lot of senior athletes. They were really good athletes that provided energy and support to the team. Without them, the rest of the girls have struggled to find themselves."
One girl that hasn't struggled as much is Rondeau.
"She's a great player," Miller said of Rondeau. "We game-planned for her, and tried to stop her, and she still scored. She did a great job and was always dangerous."
Showcasing her skill, Rondeau took a free kick 20 yards inside of midfield, and had it bounce off the crossbar with 8:30 left in the game. Then with only a minute to play, she made a perfect cross in front of the Warsaw goal, but the Warriors failed to put a foot on it, wasting a golden scoring opportunity.
"If she gets the ball in the right place with her speed, and her willingness to do what it takes to win games, she can make things happen," Cunningham said.
"She's a player we've tried to mix around on the field a little bit," he added. "Since we had struggles in the midfield, we moved her there for a while. It just seems like up top is where we feel she needs to be."
Warsaw is at Huntington North Wednesday, while Wawasee hosts NorthWood Tuesday.
Following those regular season finales, both teams will get ready for the Bethany Christian Sectional, where Warsaw will play West Noble Oct. 12 at 6:45 p.m., and Wawasee faces East Noble Oct. 13 at 6:45 p.m..
"In the past, we've kind of gone in as favorites," Cunningham said of the sectional. "This year, it's a little bit different. We're right there. Warsaw is probably one of the top teams in (the sectional). I think, if we can get our game a little bit more consistent and make a couple more changes, we can play with them for an entire game, instead of just the last half of the game."
