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After opening the season with a loss to Carroll on Saturday, the Warsaw boys soccer team looked to pick up its first win of the season against Fort Wayne South Side at home on Monday. The team started slow but settled in nicely, getting into the win column with a 3-1 victory.
The Tigers found themselves behind early in this one, as just a few minutes into the game, South Side’s Iddi Yuda found the ball at his feet with plenty of space around him at the Warsaw end of the field. He took a few steps and launched a rocket of a shot from well beyond the goalie box. There wasn’t much keeper Isaac Summers could do as the ball bent perfectly into the back of the net.
Warsaw responded well to the early shot from the visitors, marching down the field moments later in a possession that ended with a shot by Ricardo Anacleto-Melensdez just barely going over the crossbar.
That wouldn’t be the only chance the home side would put together in the coming minutes. Just three minutes after the Archer goal, a perfect lead pass to Jonah Caughell on the wing gave the junior plenty of room to operate. He made his way towards the net before releasing a cross pass at the last second. It was perfectly placed onto the boot of striker Mydin Burgher, who did the rest and tied things up at 1-1.
After an eventful first 10 minutes, things mellowed out dramatically. The Tigers continued to settle in after giving up the opening goal, and even though they weren’t able to find a way to pull ahead in the possessions that followed, the team was able to put constant pressure on the visitors, coming extremely close to taking the lead multiple times.
After a long lull in play, Warsaw was finally able to get back on the board with just five minutes left in the first half. Similar to the first goal of the game, Tiger midfielder Sam Lara was able to find a ton of space on the South Side part of the field and was able to unleash a laser that went past the keeper’s outstretched hands and into the back of the net to make it a 2-1 game.
Even with the lead, the Tigers continued to remain the aggressors as the second half got started. The home side was able to possess the ball for a majority of the first 10 minutes of the half, coming close to doubling their advantage twice.
The more time that ticked off the clock, the safer the Warsaw lead seemed to be. South Side had been unable to generate much of anything following the game’s opening goal, and the longer the game went on, the more the Tigers were able to dominate possession.
With less than 10 minutes to go in the game, the intensity of the Archers had picked up tremendously. The visitors were starting to string together longer spells of possession, but were unable to find an equalizer. The Tigers, on the other hand, were finally able to extend their lead on a second long goal from Lara to provide some key separation late.
The Archers came incredibly close to adding one last goal in the final minutes, but a fantastic save by Summers in net denied the visitors from doing so.
Warsaw (1-1) is on the road Thursday at St. Joseph.
