SYRACUSE - The Warsaw Community High School boys soccer team completed a four-game sweep of teams from rival Wawasee Saturday afternoon.
Battles between the two Northern Lakes Conference and Kosciusko County schools began Friday, when the Tiger tennis and football teams each defeated their Warrior counterparts.The trend continued on a cold Saturday morning, when the Lady Tigers soccer team picked up a win, and the boys team rode the momentum to a convincing 6-3 NLC win later that day.
The 15th-ranked Tigers (9-4-4, 3-1-3 NLC) wasted no time getting control of the game, with freshman Diego Lopez scoring at the 38:44 mark in the first half, then scoring against 16 minutes later, for his 15th goal of the year.
Warsaw grabbed a 3-0 lead when Diego's older brother, sophomore Corey Lopez, put Wawasee (5-7-4, 0-5-2 NLC) in a bigger hole with 17 minutes remaining in the half.
"I would definitely say Warsaw's a talented squad, but I'm not sure they're going to feel as confident about their first few goals," Wawasee coach Peter Lucht said. "Some of their goals were definitely earned, but we assisted them on a few."
Down 3-0, Wawasee scored two goals in the final three minutes of the half, one off a penalty kick from junior Austin Benzinger and the other being Warsaw scoring in its own goal.
"After we got the three goals, I thought we got a little lazy," Warsaw coach Scott Bauer said. "We didn't recover well defensively, and sometimes they had four-on-three or five-on-four opportunities.
"They just hung in there and kept pressing," Bauer added about Wawasee. "That's being well coached and motivated."
After controlling the action, Warsaw should have been feeling confident at the half. Instead, the Tigers found themselves with a one-point lead.
"The guys were a little bit upset, and I think they understood I was a little bit upset," Bauer said. "I let them understand that we needed to defend their players at all times, and we didn't have intensity out there, even though we were up 3-0."
The intensity picked up midway through the second half, when Warsaw scored three unanswered goals by junior Noah Price (56th min.), Corey Lopez (65th min) and sophomore Andros Gonzalez (71st min).
"Warsaw's definitely got some talented guys out there," Lucht said. "No doubt."
The Lopez brothers are among the top players in the conference, as Corey's recorded 17 goals, seven assists and 41 points this year, while Diego's scored 15 goals and posted eight assists for 38 points.
Warsaw's single-season record for goals is 20 by Jake Rogers in 2003 and Jesse Sharp has the record for single-season points, with 48 back in 2006.
"Both of them absolutely have a chance to make their way through the record books at Warsaw," Bauer said. "They're prolific scorers."
Wawasee got its final goal of the day from a Benzinger free kick with 8:04 to play.
Benzinger's specialty has been taking free kicks for the Warriors, and he's been pretty good at it.
"He's probably been a part of nine goals," Lucht said of Benzinger. "I think he has six goals and three or four assists. Something amazing like that, and he's been playing back. He's solid."
The teams now prepare for sectionals Thursday, with Warsaw facing Manchester at 7 p.m. at the Argos Sectional, while Wawasee is at the Goshen Sectional, taking on Bethany Christian at 5 p.m.
"I don't think we've been playing our best soccer as of late," Bauer said. "Letting Wawasee back into this one like we did, was a bit of a step back. We're just going to have to put the pedal to the metal, and start turning some of these things around."
