Lady Warriors cruise to 3-0 victory over Riverton

WORLAND - Using their athleticism to their advantage the Worland Lady Warriors soccer team was able to burn past the Riverton Lady Wolverines 3-0 Thursday afternoon at Worland High School. The Wassum sisters accounted for all three of Worland's goals, senior Casey Wassum scored two goals and Kate Wassum scored the other.

As a whole the Lady Warriors are quite green on at the varsity level, six of their 11 starters earned their first start on Thursday. But once the nerves settled the Lady Warriors got to business and controlled the match from that point on.

"Once they settled in, communicated and started trusting each other we played better. I felt like our passes meant well, they weren't always right on target, but you could see what they were trying to do and I like that. It means that they're seeing the field and have a feel for the game. That's something we can build on," said WHS girls soccer coach Danielle Warren.

Defensively, the Lady Warriors forced the Lady Wolverines to take a lot of long shots on goal whenever they worked the ball into Lady Warriors territory. Occasionally, Riverton got the ball into the 18 and looked as if they could score, but that's when the Worland defense kicked it up another notch to keep things clean on their end.

"They transitioned well together and they figured what we were talking about with marking and making sure that they're goalside of their mark, and were aggressive. That was one thing they did a good job at was being aggressive and getting to the ball. I felt they really have each other's backs, when Karla [Gaytan] came out to get the ball Jaycee [Page] made the overlap and made the save. Time after time it was either Karla saving someone's bacon, or Jaycee saving someone's bacon or Kyra [Klinghagen] saving someone's bacon. That was really cool to watch with the transitions they have," said Warren.

Helping some of the younger players along was the Lady Warrior captains of Jaycee Page, Julie Warren and Casey Wassum. The three leaders were instrumental in helping their teammates navigate through their first varsity contest.

"You can see when she [Casey Wassum] touches the ball something is going to happen. She's a key player for us and has been for the last three years. Her work rate and intensity, you could see when she came back on to the field, you took me down I'm going to score on you and she did. She drove the ball down the field and put the ball in. I love that. She's always positive and is a team leader. Our team captains are Casey, Jaycee and Juli and the kids are the ones who chose them," said Warren.

The Lady Warriors will have today off as their match against the Lander Lady Tigers was canceled due to Lander not having enough players. Instead, the team will watch film for their practice as they prepare for next week's division matches against Cody and Powell.

"I really wanted a game tomorrow but it's OK that we don't. We'll watch some film for practice then come out and support the boys," said Warren.