Warsaw’s boys soccer team opened a new season and a new era Tuesday night. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great debut for the Tigers, who who fell 4-1 to the visiting Argos Dragons. Under the direction of first-year head coach Frank Courtois, who was previously an assistant for the Tigers before replacing longtime coach Scott Bauer, Warsaw’s inexperienced team fell behind 3-0 early. While the Dragons had plenty of talent back from last year’s Class A final four team, the Tigers returned just three players with a measurable amount of varsity experience. “As you can tell, we have three guys that played varsity last year, returning players that played varsity,” said Courtois. “So we got a bunch of new guys we’re trying to put together. They played JV last year. We just got to find a perfect group of kids that blend together and can recognize what’s going on. So, that’s what we’re trying to do. We’ll learn from this game, and we’re gonna come back to practice and start over.” Senior midfielder Spencer VanDerWeele put the Dragons up 1-0 in the 11th minute. The Tigers had a chance to score the equalizer five minutes later, but Argos junior keeper Kyle Fishburn made the save. A penalty kick by junior Vincent Stone pushed the Dragons’ advantage to 2-0 in the 22nd minute, and then senior Chandler Campbell made it 3-0 in the 31st minute. Sophomore Eric Ocock scored Warsaw’s lone goal four minutes before halftime. The Tigers had other offensive chances, they just didn’t finish the way Argos did. Campbell scored the only goal of the second half, much the way he did in the first half, as he rebounded a miss by Stone. Stone was clearly Argos’ leader. He scored one goal and had a part in two others. Courtois said he knew Stone would be the Dragons’ main threat. “At the beginning, we told them to watch No. 7 (Stone),” said Courtois. “We were slow, and we paid for it. We can’t take it back. I told the kids, he will be the threat, and he was their threat. He’s the one that won the game for them.” While Argos celebrated the win, the Dragons left Warsaw concerned about brothers Vincent Stone and Alex Stone, both of whom exited the game with injuries. The Tigers are in action again Saturday in a tournament at Fort Wayne Bishop Luers.
ARGOS 4, WARSAW 1 (First Half) A – Spencer VanDerWeele, 11th min A – Vincent Stone PK, 22nd min A – Chandler Campbell, 31st min W – Eric Ocock, 36th min (Second Half) A – Campbell, 46th min Record: Warsaw 0-1
