Warsaw Loses Thriller To No. 3 HarrisonKOKOMO – The Warsaw Tigers gave third-ranked Lafayette Harrison all it could handle Saturday.
After 80 minutes of regulation, 14 minutes of overtime, and then a penalty kick round, however, the Tigers came up short.
In the semifinals of the Class 3A Kokomo Regional, Harrison escaped with a shootout win following a 1-1 tie with the Tigers.
Warsaw coach Frank Courtois applauded his players’ heart and desire, which led them to a 1-0 lead with senior Eric Ocock’s penalty kick in the 50th minute, but couldn’t – as hard as he tried – not question the officiating.
There was a noticeable difference in the way the game was called for each team. Warsaw’s players received yellow cards for what seemed like ticky-tacky fouls, while Harrison’s players were given warnings.
It was a controversial call by an official that set up the equalizer for the Raiders, whose Pete Newton scored in the 62nd minute.
“I’m not going to talk bad about the referee, but obviously we played against a 12th man on the field,” said Courtois, whose team was playing in the regional round of the state tournament for the first time since 2014.
“When you look at the foul ratio, our guys are getting shoved in the chest and pushed down, and we didn’t get those calls. Our guys were getting cards for little things.
“Our guys came to play, and in the first half we had them on their heels. We were dominating the game, but we can’t win against a 12th man.”
Harrison senior Jakub Hall opened the shootout round by converting his attempt, as did classmate Max Miller.
Harrison senior keeper Calvin Walters denied the attempts by Warsaw’s Blake Burns and Ocock, while Dominic Smith’s attempt hit the crossbar, sending the Raiders into celebration mode and the Tigers into disappointment.
“If we had cleared the ball it wouldn’t have got to that point,” Courtois said of the game-tying goal after the controversial call. “Our kids didn’t clear it, and that’s what happens.
“I believe if we had somebody that was calling fair play, we wouldn’t be where we’re at, we would’ve won the game. And if we had put away the opportunities we had in the first half, the referee wouldn’t have had anything to do with the game. We let them stay in the game, and the referee made calls that benefited them.”
The Tigers finished the season with a 13-6-2 record.
Harrison tied No. 2 Hamilton Southeastern – a 4-1 winner over Northrop in the other semifinal match – 2-2 in Saturday night’s championship and again escaped with a shootout victory.
Harrison extended its regional title streak to four years.
The Raiders, now 18-1-2 on the season will play in Saturday’s Kokomo Semistate against the winner of today’s Merrillville regional final, which features Goshen and Crown Point.
With Saturday’s loss, the Tigers will say goodbye to six seniors – Colton Wottring, Kyle Hayward, Cole Voss, Eric Ocock, Joaquin Juarez-Galvan and Elain Mejia.
“I always tell the guys we are young, and we are gonna come back again,” said Courtois. “Hopefully when we come back here, or wherever we go, hopefully we can put away those opportunities.
“We had a really good season, and we’re going to miss some seniors who worked very hard.”
KOKOMO REGIONAL
(semifinal)
HARRISON 1, WARSAW 1
Harrison wins PK shootout 3-0
(Scoring)
W – Eric Ocock PK 50th min
H – Pete Newton
Warsaw Record: 13-6-2
Other semifinal: Hamilton Southeastern 4, Nothrop 1
Final: Harrison 2, HSE 2 (Harrison wins shootout 3-1)
