ELKHART — Fast paced and physical. 
That was the tempo set early by the Wawasee Warrior men’s soccer team Saturday afternoon when they took on Northern Lakes Conference foe Elkhart Memorial. The two teams maintained that pace to an anticlimactic 2-2 tie at Charger Field.

The momentum and energy throughout the game left those in attendance wanting more than a tie; it was unsatisfying and did not give justice to either teams play.

Wawasee head coach Tom Taylor may have spoken for all Warrior fans in attendance after the game when he talked about the final score saying, “I’m really disappointed we had to conclude to two penalty kicks there.”

Junior Luke Smith gave Wawasee an early lead when he broke away from Charger defenders and found the back of the net in game’s 11th minute putting the visitors up 1-0. 
Before Memorial knew what had hit them, Smith struck again with a nice pass from sophomore Ricky Camargo in the 13th minute of play giving Wawasee a 2-0 advantage.

The Chargers seemed to get a wakeup call from head coach Dan Sullivan after Smith’s second goal and began to attack the Warrior defense, racking up four shots on goal in a short amount of time.

Wawasee senior goalie Josh Secor denied everything that Memorial threw at him, protecting his team’s lead until the 30th minute of play when the Chargers caught a break. ,The senior was yellow carded after knocking Charger senior Saul Garcia to the ground inside the goalie box setting up a penalty kick. Memorial converted for its first goal, cutting Wawasee’s lead down to one.

Both teams came out in the second half continuing the physical style of play. Memorial would catch another break though in the games 43rd minute. After missing a shot on goal, Charger freshmen Jamie Garcia ran into the back of Wawasee’s Fabino Drighetti, causing Garcia to fall to the ground which led to a questionable yellow card on Drighetti.

This set up a second penalty kick for Memorial, and Garcia capitalized on the opportunity to knot the game up at two goals apiece. Secor and his Memorial counterpart, William Macedo, were both on their heels as both defended multiple shot attempts in the final minutes. Wawasee added three more shots on goal in the second half to finish the day with a total of six while Memorial would add six shots on goal to finish the day with 12.

After the match the always positive Taylor expressed his frustration with the final outcome but gave his team a lot of praise, “I’m not disappointed as far as our gameplay.”  Taylor continued, “We have really stepped it up as far as getting the basic skills down.

“I’m proud of the guys with the way they played, I don’t think they played to their potential, had they I think it would’ve been a different outcome for sure.”

The tie gives Wawasee a 1-6-2 record on the season and a 0-1-2 mark in the NLC. Coach Taylor and the Warriors will welcome in familiar foe Columbia City to Warrior Field Wednesday night with the action getting started at 6:30 p.m. in Syracuse.

In Warrior junior varsity action, Wawasee held on to a 4-3 victory over Memorial with goals from Korey Knafel, Alex Doll and Carlos Camargo. Doll stole the show scoring two goals, including the game winner on an assist from Kyle Weideman.