Each team had the same number of girls helped off the field due to injury, but it was the Plymouth Lady Rockies who scored the most goals.
The Warsaw Lady Tigers (2-1) had their first setback of the season Tuesday at home, falling 2-0 to Plymouth (3-1)."There's a lot of games left," Warsaw coach Dan Miller said. "It's disappointing to start the conference season with a loss, but we walk away from this game seeing room for a lot of potential growth. There are areas we can get a lot better."
Following a goal by Plymouth junior Kendra Reininga in the eighth minute of the game, the only other real action was when two Tigers and two Rockies had to have their coaches help them off the field with injuries.
"That's Plymouth and Warsaw," Miller said of the physical play. "That's a little bit of what you'd expect from these two schools, with them being physical."
Up 1-0, the Rockies had their advantage lengthened when Warsaw scored in its own goal, but in the end, it didn't matter too much.
"We just didn't create offensive chances tonight," Miller said. "Plymouth played well. We will learn from this and get better."
The result of the game leaves both squads with a one-loss season record, but Warsaw sits at 0-1 in the Northern Lakes Conference, while Plymouth is 1-0.
"For me, this is my first NLC match, so it's really nice to get that first win," first-year Plymouth coach Joe Morris said. "It's going to be a tough conference."
And it was his team's defense that helped him get that victory, as Warsaw was never able to get a good attack going throughout the first half.
"Most teams, and we're as guilty of it as anybody, you get down a little and you begin to press," Morris said. "For a little bit, especially after Warsaw got scored on early, they began to press a little and that made it easier for us in the first half."
Following a pep talk at the half, the Tigers came out more aggressive in the second half, unfortunately, the result was the same.
"Credit to Plymouth, because they made it very difficult," Miller said. "They consitently had five players back, so they were very organized defensively. Late in the game, when we were really taking it to them, they had six players, seven players defending. It made it very difficult to come down and get a goal."
A bright spot for the Tigers was junior goalkeeper Diana Monroy who had seven saves, including a leaping save with 12:24 remaining in the first half.
"We did put a lot of emphasis on this game," Miller said. "We wanted to start conference off with a 1-0 start. Ultimately, the good news is, this is the first game. We've got six other games to win, and conference is right there. I still think we're going to be right there, fighting for a conference championship."
Warsaw will look for its first NLC win Thursday at NorthWood, where the varsity begins play at 6:45 p.m.
