Wawasee’s Natalie Palacios (left) and Manchester’s Lainey Shock chase down the ball during Manchester’s 1-0 win Tuesday night.

SYRACUSE – The buildup of the lone goal of the match was innocent enough, and the finish about the same. The goal by Emma Garriott in the 37th minute Tuesday was the only tally of the match in a Manchester 1-0 girls soccer win at Wawasee.

Wawasee’s Sara Pritchard

The formulation of the goal didn’t have that sense of excitement, or even much of a reaction by either team as it was happening. Manchester dumped the ball into the Wawasee defensive third and it pinballed enough that Garriott found the ball at her feet and sent a less than wicked shot toward net. Wawasee keeper Graceanne Kerlin was caught flat-footed as the ball careened into the netting, surprising many of the good fortune.

At 1-0, the game seemed far from over, but shots were hard to come by.

Manchester managed just six shots on target in the match, five of those in the first half. Kerlin otherwise wasn’t tested after the goal other than a light shot from Carsyn Howard in the 48th minute.

“Turf is new to us. We are a very young team and a lot of them have never played on it,” said Manchester head coach Jen Birch. “The speed of the ball, the bounce of the ball is different for my girls. To understand that and to give them the right angle up front, we are still working on that as well.

“Garriott just has energy for days and she’s not going to let up. She gets after everything offensively and defensively.”

The pace became a battle in the midfield, and Wawasee slowly started winning most of the battles as crunch time approached. It’s best opportunity of the game came off the foot of the one player Birch did not want to see with the ball. In the 68th minute, Hannah Lancaster wedged her way into space and took a pass from Sarah Pritchard into open field. In a moment Lancaster would love to have back, her one-on-one shot with Manchester keeper Kiera Stacy went right at Stacy’s hands and into Squire safety.

Wawasee’s Morgan Jones puts one through the wickets of Emily Ogden.

Stacy corralled the shot as her fifth save of the match, which was the final time Wawasee pressured the Manchester net.

“They know they can score, they know they are able to score, and they get frustrated when they don’t score,” said Wawasee head coach Tracy Swain. “But they are also holding teams to one goal. We’ve held two teams to one goal, and that’s huge from last year.

“I hope they see that as improvement, and that’s where we need to go as a team. Their confidence is growing as we go.”

Swain also noted the pace of play was improving, and keeping an opponent to one goal for the second time this season was very encouraging.

“We are seeing that progress,” said Swain, whose club drops to 1-3 overall. “Our first two games we scored three goals in each of those games. We can do it, we just have to put it together all the time. We play the style our opponent plays, and right now it’s just getting us to do the things we do in practice. Focusing on one pass at a time, one play at a time.”

Manchester, which moves to 3-1 with the win, will take the win any way they can get it. Birch pointed to the defense, which gave Stacy plenty of wiggle room on the new turf.

“Our defense did a great job.” Birch said. “Haley Clifford is kind of like a wall back there. Once she wants to get that ball, she is going to shut it down. Gabbie Brewer and Ranissa Shambarger play the outsides and are quick and are not afraid to get physical to make sure to stop that ball. They keep Kiera shot free as much as they can.”

Wawasee’s Hannah Lancaster advances upfield against Manchester.