Hesston vs. Benedictine JV
Sept. 10, 2005 Hesston, Kan.

   1st   2nd  Final
Benedictine JV
0
1
1
Hesston
0
2
2

1st half:  None

2nd half:  1 HC Emanuel Batu (unassisted) 84:35; 2 HC Emanuel Batu (assist Anthony Warfel) 84:35; 1 BC J.D. Benning (unassisted) 87:58

Yellow Cards: HC 4: Richard Idler, Alan Peachey, Anthony Geissinger, Justin Weaver; BC 2: Mike Huelsing, J.D. Benning
Red Cards: None

Coach's Summary:An early evening game with a slight breeze and moderated temperatures set the stage for Hesston's first home soccer game of the season. Benedictine JV would give the Larks all they could handle on this stellar night.

     "I didn't know much about Benedictine but I knew they'd be good. It was a great game right before we dive into playing our regional games. Our last tune up before we play Dodge City on Wednesday."
      Hesston came out looking a bit slow as BC looked quicker and faster in the opening minutes. Benedictine was quicker to the ball and finding space between and through the Larks defense.
     "We definitely came out flat. I could tell in our warm up that the first few minutes would be interesting but not in a good way. We were slow in our reactions and our passes just seemed off. I'm not sure what the problem was. But usually at home we don't have a problem getting ready for anyone. But tonight was obviously different."
      Benedictine had some early chance but the Larks keeper, Richard Idler, was a strong steady presence in goal.
     "Richard is a solid goalkeeper. We'd rather have him on the field but with Chris Burkholder just coming back off a knee injury we wanted to work Chris back in gradually. The plan was to play Chris the second half. Depending on how the game went we might put him in earlier. But as the second half progressed I didn't want to make a keeper change when that was the steady part of our game. I figured if we made it through the first half we could regroup at half time. Richard makes difficult things look easy and easy things look routine. It's nice to have that security. He did a very nice job. They had a couple of chances early and even a break away, but I thought Richard did a nice job coming out and making their forward make the perfect play. Their forward didn't so we escaped the first half without a goal against."
      As the half wore on Hesston gradually looked more aggressive and more organized. Both teams had chances in the first half but neither team could break the deadlock.
      The second half Hesston looked more determined to work themselves into the better team. As time wore on Hesston found more space in the midfield and looked stronger in the back. Benedictine, however, found the first good opportunity of the second half but an offside call squashed the attack. The Larks began to attack with more numbers and couple good attempts on goal and a poor clearance found the ball nicely to Emanuel Batu who sliced the ball cleanly into the lower left corner for the games first goal.
     "Emanuel has a deadly shot anywhere in and near the area. But he's just one player on our team that can finish. If we can just be patient and build the attack instead of trying to race forward as soon as we win the ball we have more than one player that can finish."
      Batu would get the second goal as well off a nice pass from Anthony Warfel. From almost the exact same spot to the left side of the eighteen. Batu widen the score to 2-1.
      Benedictine was relentless in their efforts and refused to just give up. With just a few minutes left in the match J.D. Benning found space down the left side of the pitch. Benning sent a laser cross that didn't find a teammate but instead found the inside of the far post and eventually the back of the net.
      "They were obviously trying to cross the ball and it some how went in the goal instead. He crossed that ball from just a few yards off the eighteen. Normally Chris would have that ball but it was as if the ball had eyes of it's own. I won't say it was luck because Benedictine played hard enough to earn at least one goal. Honestly their best chances were in the first half."
      "I don't know if people watching would say that we were the better side tonight because both teams played hard and both teams had good chances. Benedictine played hard but so did we. It just came down to which team would finish better and tonight it was us. I don't think we played our best. Quite frankly I think we played far better against Bethel on Wed. But it's nice to get the win and it's especially nice to know that we can win a game without having to play lights out. In past year I felt like most games we absolutely had to play our best to win. We can't afford to think that we'll get too many wins if we don't play well. But I want our guys to understand that when passes aren't connecting and things aren't going perfectly, hard work and effort can make up for a lot of mistakes. Tonight I think that's what happened. We still need to play better if we want to be successful in our region, but we can worry about that next week. For now it's nice to be 2-1 with the competition we've played. There are no easy games this season."
      The Larks (2-1) head to Dodge City on Wed for a 3:00 pm game to start their Region VI play. The Larks will play nine consecutive Region VI games before heading to Texas to play some non-region games in mid-October.