Coach Jon Hoover's message to his Warsaw girls soccer team was simple.
It was four words to be exact – “We score. They don't.”
The Lady Tigers answered the challenge, as they hosted and defeated Northern Lakes Conference foe Elkhart Memorial 6-0 Tuesday evening.
Tuesday's game, played in a heavy rain for much of the first half, ended with Warsaw's fifth consecutive shutout.
The Lady Tigers are now 6-2-1 overall and 4-0 in the NLC, while the Crimson Chargers fell to 2-5 and 0-3.
“I think a lot of it is our style of play,” Hoover said when asked about his team's ability to hold the opposition scoreless. “They can't score if they don't have the ball. When we lose the ball, we work hard to get it back. Brenna Buhrt is a great example of that. She lost the ball a couple times in the midfield and you saw her working harder than anybody to get it back, taking personal responsibility for that
“When you have 11 people on the field who are working that hard to defend, it's really tough to score on a team like that. From the forward position to the goalkeeper position, if we all defend, it's really tough to score on a team like that.”
The Lady Tigers dominated possession and kept the ball on Memorial's half of the field the majority of the game.
Simply put, Warsaw didn't give the Crimson Chargers chances to score.
“I felt like at times we moved the ball really well tonight,” said Hoover. “We haven't arrived, but we were trying the right things. With the wet weather, it kind of threw things off every once in a while, but I'm proud of them.
“Whoever we put on the field, they didn't change the style of play. We tried to possess the ball. We tried to move it from one sideline to the other, and like I said, whoever we put on the field I thought they did a great job of doing that.”
Sophomore Abby Steffensmeier led the Tigers with three goals, scoring in the fourth, 28th and 49th minutes of the 80-minute contest.
“Abby has looked better and better with her knee,” said Hoover. “She looked great tonight, even off the ball her runs looked like they were at pace. She did a great job laying off and getting it back. It wasn't that she was always just beating people off the dribble, she was unselfish to pass it, and then due to that unselfishness she got it back and found a reward from it.”
Sophomore Delaney Taylor scored in the 14th minute, while freshman Gracia Scholl found the net in the 36th minute and junior Anna Grill scored in the 53rd minute.
Taylor assisted on three goals, while junior Anna Sullivan had two assists and sophomore Brenna Buhrt one.
While it was mission accomplished on the field Tuesday night, the Lady Tigers are working on another mission off the field.
Warsaw’s girls soccer team has created a program called “Tigers For Texas.” The goal is to get donations – both monetary and cans of nonperishable food items – for the victims of Hurricane Harvey.
The team collected items at Tuesday’s home game, and will do so at Thursday’s home game against Concord and Saturday’s contest with Noblesville.
“Some of the players and a parent came to me asked if we’d be willing to start this, and it seems to have snowballed in an incredible way,” Hoover said of the charitable action. “My thought was, absolutely.
“We come out here and play a silly game, and we kick a ball around, but there’s so many more important things going on in the world than playing soccer. If we can use this game and somehow impact the world, that’s what we’re all about here at Warsaw. I’m excited about the kids’ heart and their passion to make this thing as big as it can be. Everything this team does, they don’t go small, they go big. I think you can see that by how much they’re driving this and how much they’ve taken ownership of this. It’s just awesome to see them take it as their own.
“Like I said, we get to go home to our own beds and sleep at night, and there’s people who don’t. So for them to see the perspective and the big picture that this is just a game but they can use it as a platform to help reach those in need is a great opportunity.”
WARSAW 6, ELKHART MEMORIAL 0
EM 0 0 – 0
W 4 2 – 6
Goals – Abby Steffensmeier 3, Delaney Taylor 1, Gracia Scholl 1, Anna Grill 1
Assists – Taylor 3, Anna Sullivan 2, Brenna Buhrt 1
Records: Warsaw 6-2-1 (4-0 NLC), Memorial 2-5 (0-3)
