NAPPANEE - On the NorthWood Panthers' senior night, it was the Wawasee Warriors that ended up celebrating.
Winning 3-1, the Warriors grabbed a share of the Northern Lakes Conference girls soccer championship, a first for the school."This has been one of the things that's been eluding us," Wawasee coach Dodd Cunningham said. "We've been to semistate the last two years, but we keep missing that conference championship. We keep struggling somewhere in the conference. The conference is tough. Games can go either way and the players get pumped up. So they're real tough matches."
In the NLC, the Warriors placed third two years ago and found themselves in a three-way tie for second last year.
This season, the Warriors finished conference play with a 5-0-2 mark, the exact same as Plymouth, resulting in the share of the crown.
The girls may have to share the title, but after falling short in previous years, they'll take it.
"I'm sure it means a lot to them," Cunningham said. "This has been something the seniors have been working toward. Every year, it's disappointed them that we do so well, then lose our conference. I'm sure they're pretty happy this year, even taking the co-champs. They'll be O.K. with that."
Prior to any celebration, the Warriors first had to deal with a tough Panthers (9-5-3) team on a wet field.
With a light drizzle falling, Wawasee broke a 0-0 tie when freshman Mallory Rondeau scored off an assist from sophomore Katie Allen with 18:24 remaining in the first half.
Rondeau later put the match out of reach, scoring with 10:04 remaining.
"She's been a good addition to the team," Cunningham said of Rondeau, whose two goals sandwiched one by senior Brennan McAdams. "She's given us a lot of different opportunities on top. We've always had Brennan up there with her speed and her physical ability to score goals. But it's nice to have someone up there to add something to our attack."
NorthWood did get a few good shots on goal, their best coming when junior Kelcie Lehman's one-on-one attempt sailed just over the crossbar with 25:19 remaining. However, Lehman did get another one-on-one look, capitalizing this time with just 1:21 remaining.
Despite letting the shutout get away, Wawasee sophomore goalkeeper Amy Walker did keep numerous other Panthers' shots out of the goal.
"She's doing real well," Cunningham said of Walker. "She's working on consistency. Everybody is happy to have her in the goal."
Last season, Walker backed up senior Kylee Ort as the team's keeper through the first half of the year. With Walker taking over the duty of keeping shots out of the goal, that allowed Cunningham to move Ort to the midfield, which has really benefited the squad.
"It's a good give-and-take to have her in the field, which benefits our field play so much," Cunningham said of Ort. "And Amy does such a good job in the goal. It works out better for us."
Finishing the season at 14-0-3, the Warriors hope things continue to work out well for them at the Bethany Christian Sectional, where they'll face Lakeland in the second match Tuesday.
"We're ready for the tournament," Cunningham said. "They're always some big games in our sectional. We have some tough teams to face there, NorthWood being one of them. Hopefully, we're prepared for that. We had a good season."
NorthWood will face Bethany Christian in the second match Monday evening, but if both teams find a way into the sectional championship, the Panthers could look to get some redemption.
"We're not too concerned with that right now," NorthWood coach Phillip Ummel said about the potential of facing Wawasee in a sectional championship. "We have Bethany Christian Monday, and that's where our focus is at. If we happen to get Wawasee down the line, then we'll see what happens from there."
Following senior night festivities Tuesday, Ummel didn't feel he saw the best effort his team could give, so a rematch may offer a more competitive match.
"We didn't come ready to play tonight," he said. "That's all there was to it. We didn't show who we were really were, and that's unfortunate. Wawasee's a great team, there's no doubt about that. If we don't come to play, we're not going to be able to hang with them."
