Second-Half Surge Lifts Wawasee Over WhitkoSOUTH WHITLEY – After a scoreless first half in which Wawasee controlled the ball on its offensive end, the Lady Warriors broke through in the second half Wednesday for a 3-0 win at Whitko in a non-conference soccer match at Ryan Huff Memorial Stadium. Leigh Anne Schrack finally broke the scoreless tie with a goal from the left side in the 45th minute, assisted by Hannah Lancaster. Fourteen minutes later, Schrack scored again, this time off a pass from Olivia Clouse, to effectively put the game away. Sara Pritchard scored in the 79th minute for the final Wawasee goal. While Wawasee possessed the ball for most of the match, that didn’t translate into smart offensive play in the first half, according to Wawasee head coach Doug Heinisch. “What changed was, in the first half, we didn’t control the ball well at all,” he said. “We just kind of kicked the ball randomly. We were down at their end, but we weren’t passing well and we were taking a lot of ill-advised shots. “Instead of pushing it all the way in to get a good shot and making connections in the box, we just took a lot of 20-yard shots and they were just sort of dribbling in. The ball was where we wanted it, we just needed to up our game and we did that in the second half. “That second half turnaround was about better passing. We connected. We had better control and focus.” Whitko has now been shutout in their last three matches, and has scored more than one goal in just one match, a 3-2 win over Maconaquah on Aug. 27. The Lady Wildcats’ best chance to score came very early. In the second minute, a shot by Quinn Craig bounced off Wawasee goalie Kayla White, and the kick off the rebound went just left. Whitko had just two more shots on goal, and none after halftime. Lady Wildcat head coach Gary Sims employed a defense with 10 players packed in toward the goal. “We have been pretty much steering them more defensively. Our formation is a defensive formation,” he said. As you saw, we have issues scoring. We didn’t know what they were going to bring, so it was safer to go defensive and see where we can go from there. The wind and heat had a little effect on that, and eventually we just ran out of gas.” With the win, Wawasee improved to 5-2 overall, and will host Culver Academies at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The Lady Wildcats fell to 2-6, and will travel to Woodburn to take on Woodlan at 10 a.m. Saturday.
WAWASEE 3, WHITKO 0 (Scoring) Waw – Leigh Anne Schrack (Hannah Lancaster assist) 45th min Waw – Schrack (Olivia Clouse assist) 59th min Waw – Sara Pritchard 79th min Records: Wawasee 5-2, Whitko 2-6
