The Warsaw girls soccer team didn't christen its new soccer field the way it wanted to.
After playing their home matches at the City-County Athletic Complex over the years, the Tigers are now playing at Warsaw Community High School, but the Wawasee Warriors ruined the party Saturday with a 1-0 win."We wanted to start with a win, but we didn't get it," Warsaw coach Dan Miller said. "I thought we played hard, and at times, well enough to win."
Facing the undefeated Warriors, the Tigers held their own, but a goal by senior Kylee Ort in the 52nd minute gave Wawasee all the scoring it needed.
"We had a lot of opportunities," Wawasee coach Dodd Cunningham said of his 13-0-3 team. "We just couldn't capitalize on the enough of them, but we came out with one. That's all we needed - one goal."
That one goal now leaves Wawasee just a Tuesday night win over NorthWood away from a share of the Northern Lakes Conference crown with a 4-0-2 NLC record.
"That's a game it looks like we have to win," Cunningham said. "If we do that, it will be a two-way tie with Plymouth for conference."
In order to get a victory away from an NLC title, the Warriors first had to survive a physical game with the Tigers.
On the day, the Tigers were whistled for 18 fouls, including three yellow cards.
"This is an emotional game for the girls," Miller said. "Both for Wawasee and for us. At times, we got caught up in that. Instead of just playing, I think, at times, we got too emotional. That hindered our technical abilities. In terms of how hard the girls played, and how they executed at certain points in the game, I was very pleased."
The brunt of the Tigers' physical play was given to Wawasee senior Brennan McAdams, who hit the ground on a number of occasions.
Keying on McAdams may not have been a bad idea, but even by doing so, she was still able to get around the Tigers defense numerous times.
After getting past the Warsaw defense in the first four minutes of the game, McAdams had a shot bounce off the top post on a one-on-one chance, and was later knocked to the ground in the 22nd minute while going for a shot, which could have easily given her a team a penalty kick.
"Warsaw was playing really tightly, really watching our players, and I'm sure they were watching her with her speed," Cunningham said. "They were playing on her tightly, playing physically, not letting her get away with anything too easily."
It wasn't easy, but McAdams did find Ort for the game's lone goal with 28:18 remaining in the game.
The Tigers had looked to shut down the scoring combination of McAdams and Ort, but it was a tough task to accomplish.
"Obviously one of the people we wanted to key in on was her," Miller said of McAdams. "She's been scoring a lot of goals for them this year. She's one of the fastest, if not the fastest, forward we've seen all year. Olivia Coon, a freshman defender, played her well. She created, she had a hand in the goal, but she didn't score. I thought Olivia did a great job on her. So she was a girl we knew we had to pay attention to, and the other was Ort, who burned us for a goal."
After ruining the Tigers' first game on their new field, Warsaw wouldn't mind ruining the Warriors postseason run, as the two may meet again in the Bethany Christian Sectional, beginning Oct. 13.
"We walk away from this game feeling if we meet them in sectional, we have a legitimate chance," Miller said if his 5-5-3 (3-3 NLC) team. "We are starting to play better and peak at sectional time."
