The first three games of the season didn’t go quite how the Whiteland boys soccer team had hoped, but the Warriors seem to have found their stride.
Hosting county rival Greenwood, the Warriors came storming out of the gate and put up seven first-half goals en route to a convincing 8-0 victory on Thursday.
The win elevated Whiteland to 2-3 overall and evened its Mid-State Conference record at 1-1.
“To come back and get two wins right in a row, that’s good momentum,” Whiteland senior Shawn Sullivan said. “It’s a conference win; we really needed that since we lost our first conference game. … It’s good momentum going forward.”
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It didn’t take long for the Warriors to build momentum against the Woodmen, as Trevor Pike scored the game’s first goal from the right side just 5:38 into the match. Sullivan made it 2-0 in the 14th minute, and he converted a penalty kick five minutes later to become the school’s all-time scoring leader with his 31st career tally.
Greenwood keeper Cole Mahan, under siege for almost the entire first 40 minutes, made a phenomenal sliding save midway through the half to prevent what looked like another sure goal, but it didn’t take long for the Warriors to get back on the board.
Drake White punched home a second-effort shot off of a corner kick in the 24th minute, and the lead stretched to 5-0 on an own goal when a Woodmen defender inadvertently knocked in the rebound of a Sullivan header that had caromed off the crossbar. White added his second goal from point-blank range, and Van Liana capped the first-half onslaught by going airborne to volley home a Tristan Thomas corner with just over four minutes on the clock.
The Woodmen tightened up a bit defensively after the intermission and put up more of a fight, but by that point it was too little, too late. Whiteland got its final goal from Nathan Contreras with 5:36 left in the contest.
“We got down mentally early, and it took a while to get out of that,” Greenwood coach Dan Weber said.
For Whiteland, the win was a nice confidence builder after opening the schedule with three defeats against tough opponents.
“Starting 0-3 is tough, especially with high school kids, but they’ve weathered the storm,” coach Justin VanHorn said. “We played Plainfield tight; we went to two overtimes with them. We played Seymour pretty well. So we’re clicking right now, and as long as we can keep that momentum going, I think we’re going to have a really good rest of the season. I’m excited about it.”
The Woodmen (0-4, 0-2) have several days to lick their wounds before returning to action next Thursday at Mooresville. Weber believes his team has four winnable matches ahead and thinks a reversal of fortune could be ahead.
“We’ve got a week to rest now and get healed up,” he said. “Hopefully we can make a good run and bring this thing back to 4-4.”
