It must’ve felt like déjà vu for the Warren County High School soccer team following its win Tuesday night in White County.
Just three days after beating the Warriors 2-1 in the Franklin County Rebel Classic, the Pioneers went on the road and won in Sparta by the same 2-1 score.
While the outcome remained the same, coach Todd Willmore noted it came in much different fashion. After getting two goals from Ethan Bandy early to win Saturday, the Pioneers had to play from behind to beat White County on its home turf.
Warren County controlled action for most of the first half, but the Warriors made the most of their lone shot on goal in the first 40 minutes. Nearly 20 minutes into the match, White County launched an offensive and was able to get a shot past Pioneer keeper Jacob Dodd to lead 1-0.
While Warren County had several chances to score in the first half, no shot found the back of the net and the Pioneers went to halftime trailing by one.
White County looked content on sitting on the lead in the second half as the home team devoted most of its energy to defense. The Warriors pushed most of their players deep into the defensive zone, limiting the Pioneers’ opportunities to find open shots.
Cole Millard finally was able to break through against the Warriors when he took aim from the left wing with 20 minutes to go. Millard’s shot was the equalizer as it flew past the White County keeper and into the net.
With the score even and time dwindling down, the Pioneers made sure another District 6-AAA match wouldn’t come down to sudden death. With eight minutes to go, Millard found room in the heart of the White County defense. With the Warriors focusing on Millard, freshman Abraham Pumarino was able to make a run deep into the zone.
Millard spotted his teammate and lofted the ball into the box, where Pumarino leapt high above the White County defense and headed the game-winning shot into the goal.
The Pioneers held on late and concluded what coach Willmore thought was a solid performance by his squad.
“We dominated possession similar to Saturday, but we literally gave up one shot on goal in the first half and they scored,” said Willmore. “We dominated time of possession again in the second half and found ways to scores. Other than the one goal in the first half, we did a nice job defensively on them.”
Warren County was back in action at home Thursday night against Webb School. The result was unavailable at press time.
The Pioneers will take the weekend off before returning to action Tuesday with a road District 6-AAA game. Warren County will travel to take on Cumberland County at 7 p.m.