Tigers Drop ‘Bizarre’ Key NLC MatchMIDDLEBURY — Warsaw’s vision of a perfect Northern Lakes Conference boys soccer season imploded into something unsightly during a “crazy, bizarre” and ultimately disheartening Thursday night for the Tigers at Northridge.
Even with its 3-1 loss to the Raiders, though, Warsaw does still have a mathematical shot at the NLC title — that to be determined by how Northridge fares Saturday — but more critically for the Tigers, they must rally themselves in time for Monday’s Class 3A sectional opener, back at this same venue.
Not only that, but they’ll have to try to win that Monday game against Concord without their all-state senior sweeper.
The red-card ejection of Tedros Berelsman with 34 minutes to play Thursday means, by IHSAA rule, he’ll sit out the next contest.
With Warsaw trailing 1-0, Berelsman and the Raiders’ Tanner Sallee became engaged in a physical tangle just in front of the Tigers’ defensive goal.
The center official ruled a red card on Berelsman and awarded a penalty kick to Northridge. Warsaw coaches pleaded that there should be no PK, given that the ball itself was nowhere in the vicinity of the whistled action, let alone in the penalty-box area.
“It is a crazy, bizarre situation,” the official could be heard saying during the discussion, “but that’s the rule.”
Junior Carter Stoltzfus converted the PK for a 2-0 Raider lead, and just 55 seconds later, Northridge stretched its lead against the man-short Tigers to 3-0 when Stoltzfus headed in junior Cam Chappell’s long, whistling cross from the right side.
“We wanted it really badly,” Warsaw acting head coach James Hornaday said of an NLC crown, “and the emotion out on the field showed how bad we wanted it, but sometimes things don’t go your way, and sometimes the emotions kind of get away from you.”
Hornaday filled in for Tiger coach Frank Courtois, who was attending a wedding.
No. 7-ranked Warsaw (14-3, 6-1) closed the final gap to 3-1 on a PK goal by Aden Wade.
The No. 13 Raiders (12-2-2, 4-0-1) jumped in front 1-0 in the 13th minute of the first half on junior Drew Collins’ header off a long pass from Brody Gust.
Northridge had a chance to make it 2-0 on a PK just before halftime, but the attempt was smacked away on a slick diving save by Tiger keeper Harrison Mevis.
Besides the three PKs that were awarded on a wild evening and the red card on Berelsman, there were six yellow cards handed out — three to each side — and one fan ejected, that being a Northridge backer.
There were also at least 18 stoppages in play, just three of those appearing to be related to players going down with injuries.
that being a Northridge backer.
There were also at least 18 stoppages in play, just three of those appearing to be related to players going down with injuries.
“I’m not going to comment on the officiating,” Hornaday said.
Northridge can still capture the NLC outright by winning twice on Saturday.
First the Raiders will complete a game against host Elkhart Memorial that was suspended earlier this season at 1-1 with 22 minutes to go. Then they will head over to Plymouth to face the Pilgrims. That game was previously reported by MaxPreps as a Northridge win, but has not been played.
If either of Saturday’s games ends in a tie or Raider loss, Warsaw will be the league champ.
“We prepared to win tonight and things just didn’t go our way,” Hornaday said. “Now we’ve just got to regroup and be prepared for Concord on Monday.”
Northridge, which will have a sectional bye and will host the winner of the Warsaw-Concord game in Wednesday’s semifinals, mostly ruled Thursday’s first half against the Tigers. Warsaw’s offense was more effective in the second half, even with the visitors a man down for most of it, but the Raiders still finished the night with a 13-7 advantage in shots on goal and a 9-0 whitewash in corner kicks.
