SYRACUSE - Following Wawasee's 2-0 win over the Warsaw girls soccer team, the Warsaw boys took the field against their Warrior counterparts looking to defending their ladies' honor.
And they did.
At Saturday's boys-girls doubleheader at Wawasee High School, the Warsaw boys completed the day of soccer with a 3-0 win over the Warriors."Wawasee's a well-coached club," Warsaw coach Scott Bauer said. "They're gonna come out and play you hard, and they did for the first half. I think our second goal kind of let the air out of the ball for them, but their coach does a good job with what he has. He keeps them in matches and does his very best to keep his guys together."
While Bauer was happy to see his team close its 2007 regular season with a victory, Wawasee coach Kim Nguyen was just happy to see this past week come to a close.
"This last week, we've played a few of the toughest teams on our whole schedule," Nguyen said. "We had Northridge, then Plymouth and then we had Warsaw. We were .500 until this week, so we were doing pretty good, but I knew this week would be tough. These teams are better than anyone else we've had on our schedule."
And the Tigers proved their worth early, using good ball movement, which kept the Warriors on the defensive for pretty much the entire 80 minutes. Warsaw finished the match with 13 shots on goal, while the Warriors attempts were few and far in between, only taking three shots.
"You can tell by their ball handling," Nguyen said of Warsaw's talent. "They really play together and their keeper (Justin Evans), he was real tough. My guys, they did pretty good - not too bad. We've got some injuries and I've got some young guys playing up here with them. So they did all right."
From the beginning, Wawasee was playing on its heels, but the score didn't reflect that until Warsaw freshman Noah Price pushed a header past Wawasee goalkeeper Drew Johnson on an assist by his junior brother, Micah Price with 7:30 remaining in the opening half.
Noah Price's goal was big for Warsaw, not only on the scoreboard, but also for the development of the Tigers. After losing their top player Jesse Sharp to a season-ending ACL injury very early in the season, the Tigers have witnessed other players go down, but right now, the M.A.S.H. unit seems to be thinning out.
"We're pretty much over our injuries," Bauer said. "We have one player that may be playing a little under 100 percent, but we're playing pretty strong right now."
One player that's avoided injuries has been senior midfielder Michael Reinholt. On Saturday, the senior captain did his job, not only controlling tempo, but also scoring two second-half goals. And showing his leadership, Reinholt opted not to take ill-advised shots toward the end of the match, while teammates wanted him to go for the hat trick.
"I was really happy with Michael's play," Bauer said of Reinholt. "I thought early on, he needed to find his form. He has the ability to take people on with his pace and his dribbling ability, and he's technical on bounce defenders. We're just real happy with how he finished out his regular season of his senior year."
On both of Reinholt's goals, he was able to slip past the back line of Wawasee defenders, leaving him one-on-one with the goalkeeper. On both attempts, he converted - the first coming in the 45th minute and the second in the 56th. And it was Reinholt's goals that were the most deflating for the Warriors.
"It could have been better," Nguyen said. "They got down a little after a couple goals they put in. It was hard to keep it together, but they finished out all right."
And Nguyen knew that getting behind to Warsaw would be a bad idea.
"In my mind, I already knew they had beaten Northridge, and Northridge had beaten us," Nguyen said of Warasa. "And Northridge is a ranked team, so these guys are pretty good."
The Tigers will now try to show how good they are at sectional Thursday, when they face Plymouth at the Argos Sectional.
"I think we're still in form," Bauer said of his guys. "We're moving the ball pretty well, we know what we want to do and how we want to attack. So I think we're fairly optimistic about the postseason. But anything can happen in soccer and we certainly have a tough road at sectional with Plymouth and Argos, but we've had that every year and seem to be able to match it. I think these guys will be ready."
Wawasee will also begin its sectional play Thursday against Goshen at the Goshen Sectional, beginning at 6 p.m.
WARSAW 3, WAWASEE 0
War - Noah Price (Micah Price assist) 33rd min.
War - Michael Reinholt (unassisted) 45th min.
War - Reinholt (Noah Price assist) 56th min.
Shots on Goal - Warsaw 13, Wawasee 3
Saves - Warsaw (Justin Evans 2/Nathan Johnson 0) 2; Wawasee (Drew Johnson 9/Jordan Rouston 2) 11
Corner Kicks - Warsaw 6, Wawasee 3
Offsides - Warsaw 0, Wawasee 1
Records - Warsaw 8-5-4 (3-1-3 NLC), Wawasee 6-9 (1-7 NLC)
JV - Warsaw 2, Wawasee 1
Goals - Brody Reinholt (War), Patrick Wight (War), Robert Smith (Waw)
