Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
Whiteland’s boys soccer team had to have felt like there was a forcefield in front of the net through the first three weeks of the season.
The Warriors cracked that invisible wall with authority on Monday evening, bombarding Greenwood with a second-half barrage on the way to a 7-0 home win.
They had entered the match with just six goals on the year.
“There’s been a lot of guys that have just been trying to score, and I think we finally got them to see that if we don’t care who puts it in the net and we play with each other, the goals will come on their own,” Whiteland coach Justin VanHorn said. “I think guys were stressed out about us not scoring, and figuring out today, ‘Hey, maybe if we play together and for each other, the goals will come.’”
Each side had some quality scoring chances during a back-and-forth first 15 minutes of action, with both goalkeepers up to the challenge. Greenwood keeper Ethan Baugh had to go up high to stop a direct kick from David Mathis in the seventh minute, then dive to his right to make a stop on a Harjap Singh shot five minutes later. The Warriors (2-7, 1-2 Mid-State) nearly cracked the seal in the 13th minute when Baugh deflected but couldn’t wrap up a Vincent Albright shot, but Woodmen defender A.J. Linville was able to clear the live ball.
Meanwhile, Whiteland netminder Jake Witherington was facing his own set of challenges. The sophomore rose up to tip a direct kick by Greenwood’s Jake Callow over the crossbar in the ninth minute, then turned away another Callow shot at close range off of a Gavin Armstrong feed in the 14th.
Things got quiet for most of the remainder of the first half until the Warriors finally broke through on a counterattack. Yahir Lugardo sent a ball up top for junior J.D. Lompo, who outran the defense and then beat Baugh with a low shot to the right side of the net with 5:04 remaining before halftime.
After the intermission, the dam cracked — and the Warriors scored as many goals in the final 40 minutes as they had in their first eight matches.
Whiteland doubled its cushion just 3:34 into the second half on a hard line-drive shot off the foot of senior Bawi Lian. Then, the home side put away the Woodmen (2-4, 0-4) with a flurry midway through the period.
After Baugh turned away a pair of shots and Greenwood defender Sam Thompson cleared a third, the Warriors were able to get the ball back into the box to Braden Hall, who punched a shot inside the left post to make it 3-0. Lugardo added some insurance just seconds later, stretching the margin to four with 24:02 left, and Tristan Roca D’Huyteza added another tally with 22 and a half minutes remaining.
Hall converted his second goal of the day in the 64th minute, heading home a perfectly placed corner kick from Albright, and Dylan Singh-Cordoba capped the scoring on a close-range shot eight minutes later.
The final score obscured a more-than-respectable performance from Baugh, who finished with nine saves in defeat. Witherington made eight stops at the other end to preserve the shutout for the Warriors.
The Warriors are hopeful that Monday’s offensive performance will carry over into the second half of the season.
“We’re finally getting the pieces together,” Lugardo said. “It’s not like we’re going to score seven every game or anything, but this will definitely help us in the future.”
Greenwood is right back in action today at Brown County, while Whiteland hosts another county and conference rival on Thursday when Franklin comes to town.
