FORT WAYNE – It was a rough night for the Three Rivers Conference teams playing in Class 1A Sectional 40 of the IHSAA boys soccer state tournament Thursday at Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian High School. The sectional opened with the eighth-ranked Blackhawk Braves (9-4-4) downing the Manchester Squires (14-2-1) by a score of 7-0, followed by the Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran Cadets (3-13) besting the Whitko Wildcats (1-15-1) in the second semifinal, 9-0. Blackhawk and Concordia will meet up Saturday at 7 p.m. for the sectional championship. For the local teams, the losses were lopsided, but their respective coaches weren’t too rough on their guys. “The guys played with a lot of heart,” Manchester coach Dave McKee said. “They didn't give up on anything. They played until the whistle blew to end the game.” Whitko coach Jason Ehrman was also pleased with his squad, which bowed out of the state tournament for the third-straight year against Concordia. This year, the game was scoreless until Concordia sophomore David Elhers scored at the 18:45 mark of the first half. Then, the floodgates opened. “If you watched all three games, I think we are narrowing the gap,” Ehrman said of last year’s 10-0 loss and the 9-0 defeat in 2011. “We’re getting better. They’re very skilled and a very well-coached team. We’ve all got a lot of respect for them. I think there were times when we played with them. The past two times we played them, it wasn’t like that at all.” In the opening game of the sectional, McKee was optimistic about his Squires’ chances, but once play began, the difference in talent level was evident. Leading 2-0 at the half, Blackhawk blew things open early in the second, scoring four goals in first 15 minutes of the half, before adding its last with 19:06 to play. “I think we played with them pretty well in the first half,” McKee said. “Then, in the first 20 minutes of the second half, you could just tell we were beat.” Blackhawk outshot Manchester 21-7, but Blackhawk’s ability to control passes, win 50/50 balls and keep possession made the game seem even more lopsided than the stats indicated. Racking up 14 wins in the regular season, Manchester had allowed only seven goals in that span. Against the most talented team it played this year, that total was matched in 61 minutes of play. Over the past three years, the Squires have had successful regular seasons, but the sectional outcomes haven’t been favorable. To help get his guys more prepared for the postseason, McKee would gladly trade a few wins for losses against a higher-level of competition. “I’ve been talking to (Manchester athletic director Jeremy) Markham about that,” McKee said when asked about scheduling more Fort Wayne teams during the regular season. “It would be very nice to get some better teams on that schedule. That does nothing but make us better.” For now, McKee is going to keep trying to be successful against the opponents he does face and doesn’t want his guys’ season to be defined by one postseason loss. “I know we don’t play the strongest teams, but you still have to go out there and play and beat them,” he said. “These guys know how to win and they know how to play. It was a good year.” The Wildcats are only in their third season of being an IHSAA-sanctioned squad, and have had just as many wins in that span. Trying to get a foundation for the program, Ehrman has faced teams that haven’t been too kind to his guys, but that wasn’t the case Thursday night. Following the 9-0 loss, Ehrman took Concordia coach Kevin Macke and Concordia senior midfielder Jaron Bowersox aside after the game to thank them for their sportsmanship. “These kids have had three seasons in a row where they’ve only won one game,” Ehrman said. “When we play some teams, they give us a hard time. They make comments. (Concordia) on the other hand, is just the opposite. (Bowersox), I wanted to talk to him, because he simply told a couple of my guys, ‘Hey, I want you guys to know I’m not being sarcastic. Seriously, you guys have gotten a lot better since last year.’ That may seem like a little thing, but that kind of attitude is so-far-and-in-between. That’s just a reflection of their program. It makes me feel good to know there’s still players, coaches and parents out there that are trying to do things the right way. Just giving our guys a little bit of respect means the world to them.” Along with getting respect from their opponents, the Whitko players have also conducted themselves with class. Despite being dominated, getting outshot 45-0, the Wildcats never got chippy or took any cheap shots, which can be common in blowout soccer games. “They never have the attitude of, ‘We’re losing, so we’re going to hurt somebody, we’re going to get a foul,’” Ehrman said. “It’s never been their attitude. Through all the games, it would be so easy for them to give up at the end of the game or for them not to come back out next year, because they’re taking a pounding. It never even occurs to them to give up. A lot of them have just begun to play the game. It’s not apples to apples against a program like (Concordia), but they don’t care. They come out everyday, they have fun, they do the best they can and they keep their heads up.” And for a team still trying to get its footing in the high school soccer world, lumps are going to come, but if wins are going to come, those losses are inevitable. “It’s hard sometimes, because I want to give them perspective, but I don’t want them to feel like I’m telling them they can’t do it,” he said. “It’s always a fine line. Sometimes, it’s easy to just look at the scoreboard and look at the record and feel like they haven’t made any progress. But if you’ve watched them play all three years, they’ve come so far.”
F.W. BLACKHAWK 7, MANCHESTER 0 (Sectional 40, Semifinal) B – Caleb Weaver (Brooks Smith) 4th min. B – Aaron Jones (Weaver) 30th min. B – Smith (penalty kick) 42nd min. B – Jones (Grant Cayot) 49th min. B – Cayot 54th min. B – Jones (Cayot) 55th min. B – Ethan Mansfield 61st min. Shots – Blackhawk 21, Manchester 7; Shots on Goal – Blackhawk 13, Manchester 4; Saves – Blackhawk (Daniel Bone 2/Graham Brown 2) 4, Manchester (Rainer Borgmann) 6; Fouls (Yellow Card) – Blackhawk 18, Manchester 10 (Ashton Bolinger); Offsides – Blackhawk 0, Manchester 1; Corner Kicks – Blackhawk 4, Manchester 2 Records: Blackhawk 9-4-4, Manchester 14-2-1
F.W. CONCORDIA 9, WHITKO 0 (Sectional 40, Semifinal) C – David Elhers (Caleb Wedeven) 22nd min. C – Joshua Hillery (Alex Koenemann) 24th min. C – Hillery 25th min. C – Wedeven 33rd min. C – Justes King (Charles Fisher) 39th min. C – Chandler Branning (Fisher) 43rd min. C – Hillery (Austen King) 50th min. C – Fisher 74th min. C – Dennis Mertz 79th min. Shots – Concordia 45, Whitko 0; Shots on Goal – Concordia 27, Whitko 0; Saves – Concordia (Andrew Wick/Adam Gilbert) 0, Whitko (Jacob Helton) 18; Fouls – Concordia 4, Whitko 1; Offsides – Concordia 0, Whitko 1; Corner Kicks – Concordia 10, Whitko 0 Records: Concordia 3-13, Whitko 1-15-1
