Wawasee’s Michael Pena (14) clears the ball away from Concord’s Julio Solano. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

DUNLAP – “This is what a quality program looks like. This is where we need to be.”

That was the message Warrior head coach Jordan Sharp gave his team following Saturday’s game at Concord. The Minutemen scored early and often in what would finish as a 10-0 throttling of the visiting Warriors in the Northern Lakes Conference opener for both teams.

“One of our goals coming out was to play with a lot of confidence. After the first half I told the boys that there was no sign of confidence in their play at all,” Sharp added.

Any confidence the Warriors may have had entering the game was certainly dashed after the first seven minutes of play. Concord scored three goals in that time and did not let up after that. Getting the scoring going for Concord was Nathanael Rich. The senior scored in the second minute of play to start an all too common theme for the last name “Rich” on Saturday. Both Nathanael and freshman Ben Rich would score a combined five times on the day with the elder Rich tallying four of the scores.

Nathaniel Rich of Concord dominated the field all day, scoring four goals.

Julio Solano was the second Minuteman to get on the board with a put-back header in the third minute of the game to put Concord up 2-0. IT was the first of Solano’s two goals on the day. Nathanael Rich came back with his second goal with just under 34 minutes to play in the first half and would complete his hat trick at the 28:35 mark in the first half.

Fellow senior Crishtian De La Paz got into the scoring barrage with a goal at the 24:20 mark to put Concord up 5-0. It was clear that the home team was not letting up and the Warriors just had no answers for the potent attack. Ben Rich added his goal at the 13:40 mark to give Concord its 6-0 lead. The Minuteman had 12 shots on goal in the first half compared to just two from Wawasee.

The Warriors played better to start the second half but could not hold Concord off for long. Drew Wysong slipped in a goal at the 30:14 mark in the second half followed shortly by Solano’s second goal of the day. Concord led 8-0 with just over 20 minutes to play in the game. After five minutes successful goal play by keeper Caleb Glon for Wawasee the Minutemen struck again as Nathanael Rich netted his fourth goal of the day to give Concord the overwhelming 9-0 lead with 15:55 to play. Glon had 8 saves on the day before being relieved by Korey Knafel.

Knafel had little time in goal but managed three saves. But even Knafel could not hold off the Minutemen with his time in net. Concord freshman Fernando Cervantes scored with just 2:12 remaining in the game to give his team the double-digit 10-0 lead which would prove to be the final.

Wawasee’s Javier Lopez looks to pass Saturday morning against Concord.

After the game Sharp focused on the task ahead, “This is big for the guys, we have to see how they respond to a game like this. Concord is a great program to model after and we have to keep improving to get where they are.”

Wawasee (0-1-1, 0-1) will look to shake this rough loss when it welcomes in Hamilton to Warrior Field Monday night at 5 p.m. in Syracuse. Concord (3-0, 1-0) will take on Elkhart Memorial Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.

The Concord JV rolled to a victory in its game against the Warrior JV with a 6-0 win.