GOSHEN — The postseason run for the Warsaw girls soccer team concluded Saturday night in the Goshen Regional finals against No. 4 South Bend St. Joseph. Encountering a team that had won the previous three regional titles and reached last year's state semifinals, the Warsaw Lady Tigers (13-5-2) struggled to keep up with the St. Joseph Lady Indians (19-2) in a 3-1 loss. St. Joe advances to semistate, where it will host No. 2 Hamilton Southeastern Saturday in South Bend at 10 a.m. “They're a very good team,” Warsaw coach Dan Miller said. “We had a game plan to try to shut a couple of their girls down in the midfield. For the most part, I thought we did a pretty good job of that. Their front three – their speed is really good and they just seem to have a killer instinct to go to goal. They put our backs under a lot of pressure all night long.” The speediest of the Lady Indians was senior Rachel Staud, who routinely gained control of the ball and outran the Warsaw defense. The first time she utilized that speed, she scored off an assist from sophomore Madeline Raster in just the sixth minute of the game. Using great touch and spacing, St. Joe had numerous chances to increase its early lead, but shots either just missed or Warsaw junior goalkeeper Abby Schue was there to thwart the shots. “She made the saves that she needed to, but I can only look at us,” St. Joe coach Johan Kuitse said. “That's where my focus needs to be. I think we should have done better with some of those chances.” Miller was paying more attention to Schue, and he liked what he saw. “She's incredible," Miller said of Schue, who posted 11 saves. “Really not faults of her on those goals. There were a couple tap-ins at the far post. She's just an incredible goalkeeper.” Keeping Warsaw close, the Lady Tigers knotted things up in the 14th minute when a shot by senior Meredith Hollar hit the cross bar and fell directly down in front of the goal, where senior Sydney Rose was there to boot it in. However, just when things got interesting, St. Joe senior Kate Vasile scored off an assist from senior Catherine Raster just over a minute later, putting her team back on top 2-1. “We haven't had a team tie us up that quickly in a while, so it was crucially important that right away we showed a strong mindset to get it back,” Kuitse said. “I was very pleased with that.” In the second half, St. Joe came out fast, but had two shots sail just high of the goal, then Warsaw had a chance of its own when the school's all-time leading goal scorer got behind the Lady Indians' defense. On a one-on-one with St. Joe freshman goalkeeper Catherine Edmonds, the St. Joe defense caught up with Hollar and spoiled the opportunity without a shot being taken. With 15:30 left in the game, St. Joe's Raster also had a one-on-one with Schue, but the Northern Indiana Conference MVP had her shot go just right of the post. St. Joe ended the game outshooting Warsaw 29-9, but just 14 of those shots were on goal. “Obviously, we're very happy to win, but we left a lot of chance out there,” Kuitse said. “We got away with it today, but if we do it going forward, we're not going to win.” After having so many shots get denied, the Lady Indians did put the game away with a goal from freshman Meredith Greve with 8:04 remaining. “I'm proud of us for really going toe to toe with them for 80 minutes,” Miller said. “I think that speaks a lot from where we were at three years ago, playing in the regional, losing 3-1 to Penn. Each year, we're steadily improving and playing better and better. I'm proud of this group.” His group featured nine seniors, including Hollar, Rose, Erica Gauger, Emily Tandy, Lauren Snodgrass, Kelly Williams, Alex Noppert, Elise White and Gabby Monroy. “We're going to miss all nine of them,” Miller said. “All nine of them were contributors in some way. Losing the leading goal scorer in the history of the school, a really strong midfield and Lauren Snodgrass, a incredibly good defender, it's a lot of talent to replace. They've done such a good job of developing through the program.” Hollar leaves the Warsaw program with 67 career goals, doing so even after missing her entire junior season with a knee injury and much of this season with another injury. Having so much success around the goal, Hollar was a focal point of the St. Joe defense. “We knew she was going to be dangerous,” Kuitse said of Hollar. “If you look at their stats, she scores a majority of their goals. We knew they were going to try to go through her, so we tried to put pressure on her and have another player play off her. I think that worked fairly effectively.” Miller was emotional when speaking about the seniors, because he knows what they brought to the program. “We're always going to have high expectations on where we want to be – conference champions, sectional and being in the regional,” he said. “That's just the level we expect to be at.”
SB ST. JOSEPH 3, WARSAW 1 (Goshen Regional, C'ship) S – Rachel Staud (Madeline Raster) 6th min. W – Sydney Rose (Meredith Hollar) 14th min. S – Kate Vasile (Catherine Raster) 15th min. S – Meredith Greve (Staud) 72nd min. Shots – St. Joe 29, Warsaw 9; Shots on Goal – St. Joe 14, Warsaw 5; Saves – St. Joe (Catherine Edmonds) 4, Warsaw (Abby Schue) 11; Fouls – St. Joe 8, Warsaw 10; Offsides – St. Joe 1, Warsaw 0; Corner Kicks – St. Joe 5, Warsaw 4 Records: St. Joe 19-2, Warsaw 13-5-2
