Wawasee’s Ryan Edington (24) fires a shot past Elkhart Memorial keeper Preston Elonich and defender Brandon Vargas Monday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – Wawasee boys soccer head coach Jordan Sharp was making a pointed message, working damage control, and stating the obvious all at the same time. After Elkhart Memorial scored its third goal of the match on what Sharp deemed as ‘ugly’ in part of his rant, he turned to his club and pleaded they pick up the slack.

Wawasee responded with two goals in less than two minutes, but couldn’t overcome the ugly one in a 3-2 loss to the Chargers in Northern Lakes Conference soccer Monday at Warrior Field.

Wawasee’s Brandon Vargas wins a header over Roberto Mota.

Memorial took a 2-0 lead into the half, a free kick from 20 yards out by Elmar Martinez in the eighth minute, then six minutes before the break, Jonathan Ortiz served a ball into the Wawasee box which Alejandro Correa-Murillo collected and finished.

After a very verbal and direct message at the half, Sharp saw his club give up that ‘ugly’ goal just three minutes into the restart. Memorial served a ball into the penalty area which Wawasee keeper Dillon Drake got his hands on, but lost control of the ball. As it skipped away to the back edge of the goal, pinball ensued and found its way to Steven Diaz’s feet, who made good on the chance, sending the score to 3-0.

“It seems each game we have one, and we suffer them because of a letdown of some kind,” Sharp said of the ‘ugly’ goals. “It’s just each game, we don’t have a clean sheet, we are just allowing something in and it’s frustrating. Sometimes I point it out to them to get them fired up, we’re tired of seeing it.”

Rather than letting the game get out of control, Wawasee made it a nailbiter. In the 52nd minute, the through ball sequence it had tried for 50 minutes without result finally yielded one when Blayne Faught was pulled down in the penalty box on a run. Ryan Edington converted the penalty.

Less than a minute later, Wawasee tried the play again on a clearance from its own end. The ball found the foot of Chris Pena – the one player Memorial spent most of its effort marking – who sent a brilliant pass through the face of the defense to a streaking Edington, who made his chance true. At 3-2, the match h

ad completely turned.

“Ryan has been huge for us up there, it’s just frustrating that we are not able to create more for him and he is having to create so much,” Sharp said. “We are doing a little better in possessing up the field, so we don’t have to rely on Ryan or Chris to do so much individually, make hero plays. We’re working on it but have yet to see the fruit of it.”

Ethan Carey congratulates Ryan Edington on his second goal of the match.

Wawasee had several chances to equalize, and two built on similar premises. Free kicks from Eric Yankosky went sailing into the Memorial penalty area, where the heads of Pena and Edington flicked attempts at net that just missed. Edington also had a close-range attempt snuffed out by Preston Elonich and the Memorial keeper came up huge in just the second minute, thwarting a Pena penalty kick attempt that was blocked, the rebound attempt also blocked from danger.

Memorial would take 10 shots on net in the game, forcing Drake into seven saves. Wawasee fired seven shots at Elonich, who made four saves.

Memorial moves to 4-5-2 overall and 2-3 in the conference while Wawasee continues to struggle in the NLC, dropping to 0-3 overall and 3-3-2 overall. The issues in the NLC, where Wawasee has been outscored 17-5, continues to mount.

“We are frustrated as coaches,” Sharp said. “We’re sitting over here feeling as though we’ve prepared them as best we can. And they come out in the first half and they aren’t giving it their all. That’s something that is really frustrating. That’s something we’ve got to continue to talk to them about and continue to work on with them.”

In the second match of the night, the Memorial JV were all over Wawasee in a 6-0 final.

Wawasee’s Chris Pena sends a header on goal against Elkhart Memorial.