WARSAW – Less than two weeks ago the Warsaw soccer team suffered a rare defeat at the hands of its county rival Wawasee. The Tigers dropped a 1-0 decision in Syracuse but had a chance for redemption in the semifinal of their own sectional Wednesday night. That was a chance they did not waste as they advanced to the sectional title with a 4-0 win over the Warriors.

“Everybody starts at zero, that’s what I told the guys coming into the game,” said Warsaw first-year head coach Frank Courtois. “That’s why we play the competition we play. Goshen, Canterbury, those teams get us ready for this moment in the tournament.”

The Tigers looked like a completely different team than the last time the Warriors saw them. Warsaw lacked energy and spark against Wawasee in late September, but this time around the Orange and Black went toe to toe with the Warriors and it showed early on.

Edward Esqueda broke a nil-nil tie with a great decision to take a shot from about 25 yards out. Esqueda’s kick caused Wawasee’s Caleb Glon to hesitate for a split second which allowed the ball to reach the back of the net. The goal (10′) energized the crowd and allowed Warsaw to play even more aggressive.

“Wawasee plays so aggressive,” Courtois continued. “We told the boys to step and match Wawasee’s intensity. That’s what happened to us the Saturday we played over there (in Syracuse) they jumped on us and we didn’t know how to react to respond to Wawasee’s aggressiveness.”

Falling behind 1-0 proved to be a bigger issue for the Warriors than the Tigers may have realized.

“The guys were pumped, they were ready,” began Wawasee head coach Jordan Sharp. “But, over the course of the season, we have not done well after we get scored on first. We dropped the ball with that. That hurts us and we’ve just not been great at responding this year, that’s been the tale of most of our games this year.”

Wawasee, down just 1-0 at the half, was obviously still in the game but failure to generate any offense left Warsaw with too many opportunities. The Tigers created separation just nine minutes into the second half on a goal from Lucas Cone. Pedro Monsivais assisted the shot to help Warsaw go up 2-0.

Cone scored again with 11 minutes to spare in the game, this time on a header. The pass came from Brady Yeiter. Eduardo Calderon helped add some icing to the Tigers cake with the team’s final goal a few minutes later.

It was the performance the Tigers needed to hopefully get something big started in the postseason. The Tigers will face Culver Military Academy at 7 p.m. for the sectional title this Saturday. CMA was a 2-1 winner over Plymouth.

“CMA has a couple of good guys up top,” Courtois said of the Eagles. “It’s up to us to come out and play aggressively. That’s been our issues with not getting goals. Once we starting playing aggressively, our guys get goals.”

Notable Area Scores

Elkhart Memorial 1
No. 1 Goshen 0

Concord 3
Northridge 1

Penn 6
SB Clay 0

SB Adams 2
SB Riley 1

Bremen 3
Lakeland Christian Academy 0

Argos 5
Culver 0

FW Blackhawk Christian 4
Manchester 0

Woodlan 3
Whitko 0