Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SOUTH BEND -ÊIt wasn't the finished the Warsaw soccer team had hoped for.
After making a strong run through the sectional and regional competitions, the Tigers defeated Wawasee 2-1 in the semistate semifinal to advance to the semistate final against Merrillville. The Pirates ended Warsaw's run with a 6-1 victory at South Bend's School Field Complex Saturday night.
"It just seemed like we had a year's worth of problems out there tonight," said Warsaw coach Scott Bauer. "We weren't unorganized on the post like that all year, and we had a slip tonight."
The Tigers suffered a blow early in the final game as senior lead Joel Popenfoose went down with an injury with just over 32 minutes left in the first half. After Popenfoose laid on the field for nearly a minute, play was stopped and he was helped off the field.
Just seconds later, Merrillville scored its first goal of the night. Pirate junior Brad Daniel slipped the ball into Warsaw's net off a pass from junior Jason Kendera with 31:11 still showing on the first-half clock.
But the Tigers were not down for long. With 20:23 left in the first half, Warsaw's Brian Kolbe hit a header into the Merrillville goal. After a pass from Aaron Wishart, Kolbe went one-on-one with Peter Brasovan, the Merrillville goalie, to get the goal. Brasovan was not expecting a header by Kolbe, and the result was a Warsaw goal.
The score remained knotted at 1-all until Daniels struck again for Merrillville with 12:30 left in the half. This time Daniels kicked a pass from Jon Gutierrez into the Tiger goal to put the Pirates up 2-0.
Before the end of the half, Merrillville scored two more goals to take a 4-1 lead at the half.
"We had our chances," said Bauer. "If we could have put a goal in when we were down 3-1 or 4-1, I think we could've made a game of it."
The Pirates controlled play inthe second half of the game as well, scoring two more goals to give them a 6-1 win and a trip to the state finals this weekend.
"Today it wasn't meant to be" said Bauer. "I don't know if it was the fact that we played two game in one day or the pressure of the championship game, but this game was uncharacteristic for us. Our system requires a lot of organization in the backfield, and that organization was not there."
Merrillville's Vangel Nacovski, the state's leading scorer, netted three goals and had one assist in the game.
"Their No. 9 (Nacovski) deserves all the press he gets," said Bauer. "He is a great player. He is very intelligent and has great ball control."
For Warsaw, Popenfoose returned to the game at the 22:35 mark in the first half but went back out after only a few minutes of play. He di not return to the field in the second half.
"Joel tried to get back in there, but he could not play," said Bauer. "He turned his ankle pretty good."
The Tigers end the season 17-4-1. The Warsaw squad will lose 11 seniors, Popenfoose, Nick Bruick, Riley Fuller, Matt Scheuer, Adam Hodge, Kyle Burnett, Jeremy Schroeder, Chad Metz, Jordan Dotson, Josh Stork and Aaron Wishart to graduation this year.
SEMISTATE CHAMPIONSHIP
MERRILLVILLE 6, WARSAW 1
Warsaw goal - Bryan Kolbe 1
Warsaw assist -ÊAaron Wishart 1
Shots - Merrillville 12, Warsaw 9
Shots on goal - Merrillville 8, Warsaw 5
Saves - Merrillville 4 (Peter Brasovan), Warsaw 2 (Caleb Churchill)
Corner kicks - Merrillville 4, Warsaw 0
Fouls - Merrilville 20, Warsaw 15
SEMISTATE SEMIFINAL
WARSAW 2, WAWASEE 1
