WARSAW – A 1-0 Warsaw girls soccer win Thursday night over NorthWood might suggest a very tightly contested match. The match, at least in the second half, was anything but a nailbiter.

The Northern Lakes Conference matchup featured two top-10 outfits in Class 3-A No. 10 Warsaw and Class 2-A No. 7 NorthWood. Each team made the regional round a season ago, each team entered play with impressive victories in the 2018 campaign. The constant offensive pressure of Warsaw, however, was a huge and decisive wedge between the two clubs as the Lady Tigers had NorthWood on its heels.

The lone goal of the match came from a beautiful service from Anna Grill from the right wing on a free kick. Sending a sailing ball over the NorthWood collection in the penalty area, Audrey Grimm waited for the unattended floater and headed home far post away from a diving Kira Robinson in the 25th minute.

“Anna Grill just put a great ball in there and she has been doing that for four years now,” said Warsaw head coach Jon Hoover. “She’s gave a great ball in and Audrey Grimm got on the end of it and it was a solid goal. It wasn’t a fluke. It was very well played by both of them. I wish we would have had more, but it was a fantastic goal.”

Just a minute later, Abby Steffensmeier nearly made it 2-0, but her rocket clanged off the post and away from danger.

Warsaw unleashed an offensive show in the second half, holding nearly all of the possession. Those opportunities didn’t yield a goal, but Robinson and the Lady Panther defense had to scramble to keep it close.

Robinson made three diving saves in the second half, one in traffic and two on 50/50 balls with Warsaw players bearing down. Robinson would be pressed into making 15 stops, and had her sweeper, Mackenzie Bergman, clearing out several other prospective chances. The two earned high marks from their coach, Phil Ummel, for keeping composure under siege.

“Bergman is great,” Ummel said. “She is our leader for us in the back and she controls the middle of the field and we feel confident putting her there. Kira fought some nerves early in the game and had a few tough moments early. I thought she got herself in a better frame of mind the last 60 minutes. She was really good after that.”

Grill used her head in the 67th minute that nearly put the match on ice, rising up through the defense on a corner to rip a header just over frame.

NorthWood (2-1, 0-1 NLC), which struggled to beat Bethany Christian 1-0 on Saturday and had its Tuesday match against Westview postponed, really could not get anything going on offense. A pair of wobbly through balls were corralled by Warsaw keeper Kaylee Patton and it’s only offense of the second half in the 60th minute saw a free kick sail well wide of the mark. Ummel wasn’t worried about the lack of production, but didn’t like the disorganization when counters presented themselves.

“We have a lot of positives to take away from this game,” Ummel said. “We weren’t as prepared for the pace of play as I would have liked us to be, but I thought we handled this well for not seeing it yet, too. So once we get to more of the meat of our schedule and this becomes the norm, I think we’ll adjust.”

Warsaw (4-1, 2-0 NLC) will take the win, even if it wasn’t the smoothest.

“This is a win we’ll take, but we know we can be more patient in the attacking third,” Hoover said. “I won’t lose any sleep over this tonight. We’ve got a lot of great players who are coming into form. I’m not concerned, there are some minor things we can iron out going forward.”

NorthWood hosts Bremen Saturday morning while Warsaw will welcome in Goshen on Tuesday.