Whiteland players congratulate Kinley Waalkens (second from right) after her second-half goal Wednesday against Franklin.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
In a tight match, getting on the scoreboard first can provide a decisive momentum shift. Madison Fleury and Alexa LaPorte teamed up to give Whiteland the boost they needed on Wednesday night.
Fleury delivered a perfect corner kick that LaPorte knocked home for the opening goal of what became a 2-0 Warrior victory against rival Franklin in a battle of Mid-State Conference contenders.
The first half had seen the action see-saw back and forth, with the Grizzly Cubs (3-4-1, 2-1-1) controlling much of the first 20 minutes before Whiteland (7-2, 3-1) started generating some more chances. The seal didn’t break until the 34th minute, after a solid Fleury shot was deflected away by Franklin goalkeeper Addi Mashino to set up what wound up being a pivotal corner kick.
Fleury then hooked a ball in from the left side of the goal that sailed just out of Mashino’s reach and arrived at the back post, where LaPorte was waiting to put it in the net with 6:37 to go in the half.
“Corners have been kind of 50-50 for me,” Fleury said. “We’re kind of changing the way we were doing them, so I had to change the way I was kicking it … these past few games, I’ve been able to get them right at Alexa. … We’ve gotten quite a few off those corners. They’re definitely working out for us.”
That goal, Grizzly Cub coach Garrett Belden said, changed the entire trajectory of the match.
“We put one away early, it’s a totally different game,” he said. “But they found one before we did, so we had to go all out on offense, and it’s not quite what we wanted when we drew up the game plan.”
Franklin did nearly tie the score in the 38th minute when Anna Brumley got a hard shot on frame from outside the 18-yard box, but Whiteland netminder Addison Emberton was able to deflect it over the crossbar.
In the second half, the Warriors started to control the ball more consistently but didn’t get their insurance tally until 26:57 remained in the match and freshman Kinley Waalkens dribbled through a couple of Franklin defenders and got her initial shot denied by Mashino but stayed with the play and converted on the rebound for her team-leading 11th goal.
“She’s just one of those kids that’s maybe not super flashy, but she’s going to get the job done,” Whiteland coach Nick Magdalinos said of Waalkens. She’s going to put the ball in the hole.”
Despite the defeat, Belden likes the progress he’s seen from his team so far this season.
“They’re putting in a lot of work,” he said. “The entire team — all girls, freshmen to seniors, have been on the field in the spring, the winter. They’ve just putting in time and effort. … They care about winning and wanting to be better.”
Magdalinos, meanwhile, was happy to see his team come out on top after facing an early challenge.
“We knew they were going to come at us,” he said, “so we had talked about just kind of weathering the storm, waiting it out. Play our game, don’t deviate from what we do; just stick to our style of soccer. We did well with it.”
“We support each other,” Fleury added. “We make sure that instead of just running away from the ball, we all support and we have someone making a run, we have someone coming to. And we have a bunch of people who are scoring goals, so instead of just one person that other teams can take out of the game, there’s a bunch of us.”
