No. 2 Lady Warriors fall to No. 3 Buffalo 3-2

BUFFALO - The past few seasons at Buffalo High School have been a tough place to play for the Worland Lady Warriors soccer team and Tuesday night proved to be no different, as the Lady Warriors had an up and down performance before ultimately falling to the Lady Bison 3-2.

Tuesday's match did not start the best for the No. 2 Lady Warriors (10-5), within two minutes of the match the No. 3 Lady Bison (7-7-3) scored and took a 1-0 advantage.

"We started so flat but in the second half they stepped it up and were everywhere, like animals. So the lesson to be learned is you can't come out against team's like that, especially at state. So that was a phenomenal moment to learn that. We had the same thing happen last year, but we're pretty young this year so it's a good lesson for us," said WHS girls soccer coach Danielle Warren.

Freshman Lady Warrior Tymberlynn Crippen got Worland back in it using her head to get the goal, evening the match at 1-1.

"I was super pleased with the girls, we kept knocking, we just ran out of time. Tymberlynn had a sick header into the goal. It was a beautiful ball and everything we've been working has been coming together.

"The girls are mad that we lost, and you want them to be, but there were so many good things they did today [Tuesday]. So many positives and I don't see it as a negative. I did switch up our lineup to see if something would work, it didn't and I told the girls you can blame the loss on me," said Warren.

Defensive lapses led to Buffalo scoring twice more and take a 3-1 lead, but Crippen again added another goal late to bring the Lady Warriors within one. The final minutes of the match the Worland attack feverishly pushed forward and had the Buffalo defense on their heels, but could not get the ball to meet the back of the net.

The outcome of Tuesday's match had no bearing on the postseason matchups. The one Tuesday match that did was No. 1 Cody vs. Powell, and since Cody defeated Powell 2-1 that gave the Lady Warriors the No. 2-seed out of the 3A Northwest.

As the No. 2 Northwest-seed the Lady Warriors matchup against the Newcastle Lady Dogies, the No. 3-seed out of the Northeast, in the 3A State qualifying match at Worland High School Saturday at noon. The winner advances to the 3A State tournament in Jackson to take on the No. 1-seed out of the Southwest, the Star Valley Lady Braves.

Facing the Lady Dogies on Saturday Warren was adamant the Lady Warriors dictate terms from the opening kick, otherwise their season could come to a quick close.

"We have to come out aggressive, they [Newcastle] have been playing well lately. We can't underestimate them, we have to go and come out be aggressive against them," said Warren.