GOSHEN - Playing Warsaw in the opening game of the Bethany Christian Sectional, NorthWood's varsity girls soccer team didn't take a lot shots Monday evening.
When the Panthers did, however, they made the most of their opportunities."I'm not taking anything away from NorthWood, they played a nice match, but we made some mistakes," said Warsaw coach Mike Getz. "They got four shots off in the first half, and three of them went in. We made some mistakes and NorthWood capitalized."
The Panthers capitalized, all right, and as a result ended the Tigers' season.
NorthWood, which took a 3-1 lead into intermission, won the game 3-2 and advanced to Thursday's round of sectional action, where the Panthers will play Westview at 5 p.m.
In today's action at Bethany Christian, Lakeland and West Noble will square off at 5 p.m., while the host Bruins will battle defending sectional and regional champion Wawasee at 7 p.m.
Tonight's winners will square off Thursday at 5 p.m. and Thursday's semifinal winners will play Saturday at 7 p.m. for the sectional championship.
Warsaw beat NorthWood 2-0 when the teams squared off during the regular season, but in last night's sectional opener, the Panthers wasted no time in setting the tone and lighting the scoreboard.
Junior Kelcy Heckaman scored the game's first goal, as she found the back of the net in the second minute of action.
The Panthers' lead stood up until Warsaw junior Bekah Kolbe snuck a long kick past Panther keeper Ashley Treuchet in the 19th minute.
Five minutes later, NorthWood regained the lead when Kelcie Lehman assisted Kelsey Hunsberger on a goal.
The Panthers scored their final goal of the game with two seconds remaining on the first-half clock, as Lehman put the ball into a vacant Tiger goal.
While Warsaw had the entire second half mount a comeback, Getz said it was Lehman's goal to close that half that did his team in.
"We dug too big of a hole," said Getz, whose team finished the season with a 9-4-4 record. "Especially that last goal of the half, that goal did us in emotionally and on the scoreboard. I didn't feel like NorthWood mounted an attack on our goal, the just put pressure on us and waited for us to fold."
In 80 minutes of action, NorthWood was credited with just six shots, while the Tigers fired 11 shots.
The important stat is three of the Panthers' six attempts went in, while Treuchet shut out Warsaw nine times.
"You've got to put the ball in the net, that's the point of this game," said Getz. "We failed to do that."
Warsaw, which had its share of opportunities in the second half, did make things interesting, as junior Amanda Schroeder scored in the 78th minute of action.
The problem, the rally was too little, too late and the Tigers simply ran out of time.
