GOSHEN - They liked it so much the first time, the Wawasee Warriors decided to do it again.
The Warriors claimed their second-straight girls soccer sectional championship Saturday at Bethany Christian High School, defeating the NorthWood Panthers 1-0."Tonight, both teams came out and played hard, played well," NorthWood coach Phil Ummel said. "You gotta hand it to Wawasee, they're a great team and played very well tonight. I wish them all the luck going forward."
Moving forward, the Warriors will face another Northern Lakes Conference team at the Goshen Regional in the Northridge Raiders Wednesday.
Against NorthWood, the Warriors continued their stellar defense, limiting the Panthers to just two shots on goal. In the their three sectional wins, the Warriors surrendered only one goal on 12 shots on goal.
"The defense has been playing pretty strong throughout the season, especially in this sectional tournament," Wawasee coach Dodd Cunningham said. "We've only allowed four or five shots a game. Some of it is contributed to our defense, shutting down the other team's forwards, but a lot of it is due to our midfield. They control the offense and the rhythm of the game."
In the sectional championship, Wawasee midfielders Francisca Hoffmann and Brennan McAdams continued their impressive play. With Hoffmann utilizing her ball control and passing ability, while McAdams constantly applyed pressure with her dribble, the smaller Panthers couldn't combat the Warriors.
"They're so strong, all over the field," Ummel said. "We're a pretty small team, and we're very young and inexperienced. But they're just very strong all over the field, so their defense doesn't get tested a lot, because they have the ball on offense so much. So their defense is nice and rested, but they are strong in the back. When we did get our chance, they were up to the test every time."
NorthWood's best chance to get on the board came in the final minute and a half, when the Panthers took two corner kicks, but neither came close to getting past Wawasee goalkeeper Amy Walker.
"They had a couple chances right there at the end of the game," Cunningham said. "They had a couple corner kicks. The girls got on their heels a little bit and had a couple bad clears, rushing themselves a little bit. But they held their own in there, and keep them out of the goal."
By holding their own, the Warriors made Leanza Reyes' goal in the fifth minute of the contest off a Kaitlin Cunningham direct kick stand up.
Reyes' goal was just one of the Warriors' 16 shots on goal, but it was the only one to get past NorthWood goalkeeper Ashley Treuchet. In three sectional matches, Wawasee took 60 shots on goal, with only three hitting the back of the net. In moving ahead in the tournament, that's a ratio Cunningham would like to see improve.
"We just can't seem to get those easy shots that our forwards should be able to have," the Warriors coach said. "We did talk about shots from too far out. We just gotta focus on not necessarily not taking those shots, but making sure it's the right time and they really feel it when they strike the ball."
Along with taking shots from too far out, the Warriors also had some misfortunes with two shots colliding with the crossbar, including a Hoffmann penalty kick with 2:28 remaining in the match. Compounding the scoring problem against NorthWood was also some good goalkeeping, with Treuchet recording 13 saves.
"Actually tonight, it can be attributed to good goalkeeping," Cunningham said. "(Treuchet) had some good saves, because we had some really good shots. We've also been a little bit unlucky."
But in the end, Wawasee's defense made up for their lack of scoring, sealing up the team's second sectional championship in school history.
"We talked about it yesterday, that regardless of the outcome, how proud I was of the girls over the past couple of years, based on how much they've improved," Cunningham said. "They've helped bring the program into a competitive program, and it should be that way year after year. At least it looks to be that way over the next couple of years, because we have a great group of freshmen girls as well."
While Warrior fans look forward to the coming years, right now they're focused on defeating Northridge Wednesday night. In their earlier meeting this season, Wawasee held a 1-0 lead over the Raiders at the half, but two transition goals in the second half led to their loss.
"Northridge is a very good team," Cunningham said. "They're having a great season. They're very consistent. They have good midfielders and they've got some quick forwards.
"We expect a very tough opponent and a very good game," he added.
WAWASEE 1, NORTHWOOD 0
(Scoring)
W - Leanza Reyes (Kaitlin Cunningham assist) 5th min.
