FORT WAYNE — Facing a Fort Wayne Canterbury boys soccer team averaging nearly five goals per game, things got even tougher for the Warsaw Tigers when their starting goalkeeper left the game after just 12 seconds Tuesday. Traveling to Fort Wayne to face the Class 2A No. 5 Canterbury Cavaliers (10-1-1), the Tigers (6-2-5) lost 3-0, with two of those goals coming with senior goalkeeper Peyton Long on the bench. From the start, Canterbury showed its aggressiveness, as junior Gramm Kauffman got behind the Warsaw defense, forcing Long to come up for a sliding stop. In the process, Long and Kauffman collided, forcing the Warsaw keeper to leave the game for a little while. Sophomore Tomas Rivera entered the game for Long, and made a couple early stops, but Canterbury eventually got goals in the 14th and 16th minutes. “That’s a psychological issue for us,” Warsaw coach Scott Bauer said about losing Long. “The keeper I had to put in was hurt, but I didn’t have any others. I thought he did a nice job. He made a couple nice stops.” Long returned in the 18th minute, and made a save on a penalty kick in the 21st minute, but with Canterbury controlling possession, Warsaw’s opportunities were limited. Withstanding the Cavs’ numerous first-half chances, Warsaw did get good looks late in the half, as senior Tito Cuellar left a nice ball for freshman Joaquin Juarez just inside the box in the 33rd minute, but his shot attempt was saved by a diving Canterbury senior goalkeeper Ross Warshauer. Four minutes later, Warshauer was making a leaping save and again had to leap to knock out a shot off the foot of senior Manuel Rodriguez in the 39th minute. “The last 10 minutes of the first half, I thought we created good opportunities and we started to feel we could play with them,” Bauer said. “The idea was to come out (strong) in the second half, but we gave up another early goal. That kind of put a damper on things.” The early second-half goal was made by Kauffman in the 42nd minute, and deflated the Tigers, who got just one shot off in the second half. “The score could have been worse, or we could have gotten lucky and got a goal to make it look better than it was,” Bauer said. “All in all, we’ll take it. We played with a good Canterbury team. They had to work really hard to put us away.” On the season, Canterbury’s outscored opponents 55-7, and after watching its passing and ball control, it’s easy to see why. “They’ve got real good technical skills,” Bauer said. “They play quickly and they’ve got some strikers up top with some pace. We just didn’t have any pace to beat them that way. We had to try to build possession, then take our chances when we got them.” Senior Ryley DeJong was the most technical of the Cavs, assisting on all three goals, finding freshmen Logan Lee and Akil Watts in the opening half. Facing the fifth-ranked Cavs, Bauer feels his team got some good experience as it travels to Class 2A No. 15 Goshen Thursday for a Northern Lakes Conference game. “This was a good preparation for us,” he said. “I think we’ll remember how we had to kind of find our footing in this game and hopefully go into Goshen with a better approach.” Warsaw enters the NLC game at 2-1-1, while Goshen is 5-0 after its 1-0 home win over Wawasee Tuesday.
F.W. CANTERBURY 3, WARSAW 0 C – Logan Lee (Ryley DeJong) 14th min. C – Akil Watts (DeJong) 16th min. C – Gramm Kauffman (DeJong) 42nd min. Shots – Canterbury 17, Warsaw 6; Shots on Goal – Canterbury 10, Warsaw 5; Saves – Canterbury (Ross Warshauer) 5, Warsaw (Peyton Long 4/Tomas Rivera 3) 7; Fouls (Yellow Card) – Canterbury 15, Warsaw 13 (Brian Jaimes, Tito Cuellar); Offsides – Canterbury 11, Warsaw 2; Corner Kicks – Canterbury 12, Warsaw 3. Records: Canterbury 10-1-1, Warsaw 6-2-5.
