Warsaw earned a 3-0 boys soccer sectional semifinal win over Huntington North Wednesday. But the gap could have, and according to Tiger coach Frank Courtois it should have been, a greater margin of victory.
Cole Voss got the Tigers on the board early, taking a pass from Luis Cleto that crossed the box from left to right before Voss went back to the left with his kick in the seventh minute. Thirty minutes later, Blake Burns kicked in Jorge Rico’s pass for a 2-0 lead.
In between the two Tiger first-half goals, Warsaw had two goals waved off because of offside penalties, and an Eric Ocock shot ricochetted off the left post midway through the half.
“I wasn’t in position to see (the offsides calls), because they were quick give-and-go’s,” Courtois said. “But there were others where we hit the post, and we could have scored at least eight goals.”
Ocock scored the third and final Tiger goal on a breakaway early in the second half that essentially took any hope of a comeback away from Huntington North.
Warsaw’s defense kept goalkeeper Harrison Mevis from seeing much action, especially after the first 20 minutes. Mevis tipped away a breakaway shot from Viking Caleb Smith in the fourth minute, and Huntington North had four corner kicks in the first 15 minutes; two were stopped by Mevis and the others cleared by the Tiger defenders.
After intermission, the Vikings didn’t find the Warsaw penalty box until after the 65th minute, when both sides began substituting liberally.
Courtois said he scouted the Vikings during their first-round win over Fort Wayne Wayne, and saw the Tiger performance coming.
“After watching Monday night, we knew what to expect,” he said. “They were going to go for the long ball, and we knew we had enough speed to shut them down.
“And up top they weren’t a threat to us. We knew we had to play smart, and our midfielders were making nice runs, playing the ball with one touch, give and go. That’s what we prepared to do, and it was great.
“In postseason, if you can do one or two touches and keep the ball moving, you’re going to dominate, and the boys did a very good job of keeping the ball moving the whole game.”
Warsaw will face Homestead (10-5-3), a 5-1 winner over Fort Wayne North Side in the second semifinal Wednesday. The title match will start at 2 p.m. Saturday.
