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.