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Beginning sectional play at Huntington North on Wednesday night, the Warsaw boys soccer team gave up an early goal and found themselves playing from behind early. It didn’t last long though, as the Tigers went on to score the next five goals en route to a 5-1 victory to continue their season.
It didn’t take long to see that the two sides were incredibly evenly matched skillswise, and it led to some exciting play from the jump. The game action resembled that of a tennis match in the early going, as the ball was constantly moving from one end of the pitch to the other as both offenses were able to put some impressive early runs to the goal together. Through the first 10 minutes, each side had put up a shot on goal, but neither had been able to break through.
It remained an incredibly even match as it wore on, with neither side really outshining the other all too much. That was until about 22 minutes into the game, when the Generals struck first. A large part of the Wayne gameplan to this point was trying to unleash their speedy attackers with some long lob passes to give them a running start. This particular attempt to sophomore Daudi Chetu worked to perfection, as he used a gentle touch to steady the ball before beating his defender and the keeper with a missile into the bottom right corner to put his team in front.
It took a few minutes after the goal but eventually, the Tigers were able to begin to form a response as they chased an equalizer. Warsaw was able to draw a pair of fouls in shooting distance, but came up empty both times. They put one in the back of the net off of a throw-in, but were deemed offside. It wasn’t until a little under seven minutes remained in the first half that Sam Lara finally found enough space to let a good look go, and he was rewarded with a goal that evened things up.
It remained tied as the halftime whistle sounded, but not due to lack of trying on the Tigers part. After tying the game, Warsaw upped the pressure even more, stringing a ton of good chances together over the final few minutes. The General defense stood tall though, and almost ended up putting a goal in themselves in the final minute on a counter attack.
It didn’t take long after the two sides retook the field for the game’s third goal to be scored, as just 90 seconds into the second half, Lara went on an impressive run past a few Wayne defenders before unleashing a strike on goal that made it past the keeper and put the Tigers in front at 2-1.
Now it was the Generals that were forced to play from behind for the first time. Wayne was able to generate a few runs towards the net, but outside of coming close to netting an equalizer on a pair of corner kicks, they were unable to come up with anything substantial. Instead, it would be Warsaw that netted the next goal of the game on a great run by Jonah Caughell. After making his way just a few feet from the goal, he fired a shot that bounced off the keeper and stayed in bounds. He stayed with his shot, finding the ball again and making sure his second attempt found the mark to make it 3-1 with just under 30 minutes left.
The good times didn’t stop there for the home team on the scoreboard, as just three minutes later, they added another to their total. This time Caughell had the assist, feeding a perfect lead ball to Oscar Prats Marti, who touched it once before beating a goalkeeper that was rushing out to meet him. In the span of 15 minutes, the Tigers had turned a tie game into a three-goal lead.
Senior Sam Lara goes up against Wayne's goalie, Miles Puff, during the first half...Nieter
Samuel Ocampo became the fourth different player to score for Warsaw just past the midway point of the half. At this point, it had been quite some time since Wayne was able to put together anything offensively, and the home side was fully rolling. The orange and black were dominating possession, and it seemed as if each time they pressed forward towards the net, the result was a positive one. After the extremely promising start by the Generals, a majority of the game had been thoroughly dominated by the Tigers.
Warsaw eventually took its foot off of the gas a tad as the game began to near its conclusion, but that didn’t mean the visitors were able to get anything going in the meantime. The Tigers were content to play the possession game and defend when they had to, running out the clock on a win that put them in the semifinals.
Warsaw (10-5-2) will take on Homestead on Thursday night with a spot in the championship game on the line.
