CONGRATULATIONS BOY'S SOCCER TEAM!

The season came to end for the Warsaw Men's Soccer team Saturday night, much like the way it did when this senior class started their soccer careers with the Warsaw Wave "Pressure" team. When they were playing U9 in the Boo Tournament in Avon, their last tournament of the year, they lost in penalty kicks. Saturday night the boys played Crown Point to a 0-0 tie through 80 minutes of regular time and 14 minutes of overtime. After one overtime in soccer the game is decided by penalty kicks, each team getting five kicks. Crown Point had beaten Noblesville in penalty kicks earlier in the day when they made all five of their penalty kick shots. Just like they did against Noblesville, they made all five kicks against the Tigers to earn a berth into the Indiana AA State Championship game next Saturday.

Let's take a look at this season. The Tigers finished the year at 18-4-1 overall and 7-0 in the NLC. They won their fourth straight Sectional and Regional championships. They also played in their fourth straight Semi-State championship game and finished the season with back-to-back Final Four appearances. They finished the regular season ranked fifth by the Indiana Soccer Coaches Association (highest in school history). This year's senior class is the most successful senior class in post season play and overall career game wins. The seniors finished their careers with a 69-14-10 overall record, back-to-back Final Four appearances, and back-to-back NLC championships. The eight seniors also had great individual careers:

*Corey Lopez finished his career with records for goals and points for a season and career.

*Jose Rodriguez finished with the assist record.

*David Johnson finished with all the goalie records at Warsaw and also holds the state record for shutouts. If asked, David would say that the record also goes to classmate Lake Price who started three years as a defender in front of him. After Lake had a season ending injury in the sectional, he was still there on the sideline coaching the younger defenders.

• Jared Stout who played in the midfield, was a main-stay in the middle and was the player that the Tigers looked too in order to help control the middle during his career.

*Xavier Arellanes played on the offensive end of the pitch and would always come up with a goal that would amaze the Tiger faithful.

*Seniors Andros Gonzales played the right side for the Tigers and Brant Davis played the left side. These two players finished their careers with double digit goals and were asked to be able to cover both ends of the pitch for offense and defense.

The senior class finished their careers with 139 goals, 101 assists for 379 points.

These eight seniors have brought a lot to the soccer program. However, the Tiger's cupboard is not empty. The Tigers will return with offensive threats like Diego Lopez, Nathan Kolbe, Zach Tucker and Grant Allbritten. On the defensive side they return the starting line-up from the Semi-State with Matt Williams, Ethan Goodman, Stephen Kolbe and Gustavo Rodriguez. Also returning is goalie Michael Yantz. The JV Tigers finished their season with a record of 13-1-2 overall. There are enough pieces to make another run next season.

As someone who has watched these seniors play since they were 8-9 years old, I can say that you have made your parents proud and we thank you for the memories. To the returning players, keep working hard and play the game the way Tigers play soccer. To the coaches, thank you for your time and efforts over the past four years.

Posted In: Boy's Sports > Soccer

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