No. 5 Lady Warriors finish third in Pinnacle Challengers Cup

WORLAND - The second day of the Pinnacle Challengers Cup girls soccer tournament did end in a win of the Worland Lady Warriors, just not in the match they wanted.

The No. 5 Lady Warriors defeated the Evanston Lady Red Devils 3-2 in the Challengers Cup third-place match Saturday at Worland High School.

The Wassum sisters, senior Casey and sophomore Kate, were responsible for Worland's three goals. Kate logged one goal, while Casey scored two, with the second turning out to be the game-deciding goal with only minutes remaining in the contest.

Earlier in the day, the Lady Warriors lost to 3A Northwest rival No. 1 Cody 2-0. The score might suggest a controlling win for the Fillies but their second goal did not come until late in the second half. Until that point, the Lady Warriors challenged the defending champs and just missed on a few goal attempts.

Nonetheless, the tournament was a great learning experience for Worland. Especially, for their younger players, who got to see that they can hang with any team in the state.

WHS girls soccer coach Daniel Warren said, "I feel like we have a lot to work on but at the same time we learned and grew a lot. I told them playing Cody from 18 to 18 we won the game, but it was like we'd get in front of the goal and wouldn't finish. Then defensively we weren't focused and marking up and they put one in, but we had better chances to score in this game, other than Casey [Wassum] she just makes it happen."

"It was interesting, I have a good relationship with the Cody coach, we play each other five times a season, but she texted me last night [Friday night] 'We play each other again?', but even she said that our strikers are so fast and getting better. She sees it, it's there and it's a matter of getting there before the end of the season. We have untapped potential and if we can figure it out, it's going to be unreal what we can do," she said.

Over the two-day tournament, plenty of Lady Warriors stood out to Warren with their play. Senior defender Jaycee Page kept Evanston's shifty striker in check, Kendall Wright contained Cody's best player Genevieve Saurs. Freshman Tymberlynn Crippen took another step forward in her play and keeper Karla Gaytan made impressive saves all weekend.

"Jaycee did very well sticking with Evanston's striker. Kendal Wright played out of her mind and she stuck with Cody's Genevieve Saurs. She [Saurs] can shoot from anywhere and with either foot. Tymberlynn defensively was up and down, moving with the ball and has so much potential. Kyra did really well for us too. Karla played out of her mind good and had some amazing saves," said Warren.

Having all but one of the 3A teams competing in the tournament over the weekend allowed for Worland to see how they stack up against the field. The result from that was rather encouraging because as it sits now the Lady Warriors are certainly among the contenders - Cody, Star Valley and Buffalo - for a state title.

Now it's just about continuing to improve in practice and to maximize their potential.

"There's not a team that's out of this world good and honestly we can find ourselves back in the championship. That's what we talked about today, this tournament was like a state tournament, you play the same number of minutes in two days here as you would in three at state. Really it has the same feel and this game [vs. Evanston] was gut-wrenching and it came down to who is going to dig it out. We have the potential, we just need to keep working," said Warren.

Thursday the Lady Warriors travel to Riverton for a matchup against Riverton High School. Thursday will also be the first road game of the season for Worland and begins a five-game road trip as well.

Preparing for Riverton, along with working on some of the shortcomings that cropped up over the weekend will be the focus for the Lady Warriors in practice.

"Finishing the ball and chaos in our 18, we've given up some easy goals. Cody has gotten most their goals on us from a weird bounce. We're just floating around and not marking in those instances and you can see it coming every time. But overall I felt like there wasn't a team at this tournament we couldn't hang with," said Warren.

The Lady Warriors and Lady Wolverines will kickoff at 3 p.m.