Soccer Game Report
Hesston vs. Dodge City, Sept. 26, 2002, Hesston

  1st 2nd Final
Dodge City   
1
2
3
Hesston   
0
1
1

Hesston’s goal scored by Andy Krabill (assist by Craig Mast)

Coach's Comments--
      A beautiful night, a great Homecoming crowd, and great effort by both teams made for a very close and exciting game. The crowd really got into this one. It was a great atmosphere for our players to play in. Play went back and forth with nice plays by both sides to start the game. Hesston was struck a bad blow when the Larks keeper, Kyle Beun, was injured coming out to stop a dangerous 50/50 ball in the box. Kyle collided with their forward and hurt his shoulder. It was just a case of two players going hard after the ball. (Kyle came off on his own power and was taken to the emergency room for x-rays, which turned up negative. Apparently he just strained some ligaments in his shoulder and will just need some ice, Ibuprofen, and time to recover which hopefully won’t be too long.) Danny Yoder took over for Beun in goal. Danny is a solid goal-keeper we have total confidence in him. He did a great job in goal for us.
      Dodge broke the deadlock with just under two minutes remaining in the game. Our guys were doing a great job for 40 minutes offensively and defensively. We did an outstanding job of moving the ball around. Unfortunately the half is 45 minutes long. We looked a little tired for those last 5 minutes and they capitalized on a defensive error. One defensive error one goal.
      The break in play was just what Hesston needed as their energy seemed to come back and the effort was back up to full speed. Play again went back and forth. Hesston came very close to getting the equalizer when sophomore midfielder Troy Stutzman got behind Dodge’s defense for a golden opportunity on goal. However, an outstanding play by Dodge’s center back and keeper denied the equalizer.
      Several minutes later it looked like Hesston would get a little help from the other team. A silly retaliation by DC resulted in an ejection to give Hesston a man advantage. Our guys were clearly thinking that this would put us over the edge but I was worried. It happens all the time in soccer when the team with the man down actually gains the momentum because they know they have to play that much harder. My fears were quickly realized a few minutes later. Dodge capitalized on another defensive miscue. A poorly played ball out of the back bounced off a DC striker that led to the same player getting on the breakaway. DC’s Arselmo Enriquez made the most of his good fortune and slipped a nice shot by a diving Danny Yoder with 25 minutes remaining in the contest. At this point our guys could have let down but to their credit they didn’t.Hesston’s determination was clear as they picked themselves up and kept coming.
      The more time that ran off the clock the more the table turned in favor of Hesston. Andy Krabill finally got the Larks on the board as he beat DC’s last defender and pounded the ball from 15 yards out past the Conquistadors helpless keeper. We really needed that goal. It was well deserved too. We really were doing a great job getting the ball to the final third of the field but just struggled to finish in the final third…until then. Then the energy level went up one more notch. You could tell that they guys really started to believed that we could come back and win the game.
      Hesston seemed to have all the momentum until an unfortunate call by the referee equalized the player numbers. Freshman midfielder Jared Coblentz was ejected for a dangerous foul. We’re still trying to figure out what Jared did. I’ll have to look at the tape tonight because it didn’t really look like Jared did anything and I was only 15 yards from where the foul happened. I’m not sure that it even deserved a yellow card but like I said I’ll have to watch the tape. Things turned from bad to worse for Hesston when Troy Stutzman was told by the center ref to step off the field because of illegal shin guards. This was a baffling decision by the ref. I know that at the high school level the shin guards are a big deal but at the college level it’s just not. It was very questionable to make our player come off the field with just 10 minutes left in the game for something so minor in my opinion. With things heating up one more player from each side was given a yellow card and many whistles seemed to slow the game down. Our guys were putting so much effort into the game. But with what happened with Troy and Jared, I think our players started focusing more on the refs than on playing the game. Not completely but just enough to kill our momentum.
      With only seven minutes left in the game, DC sealed the game by heading in the third goal off a corner kick. The Larks to their credit still came down and managed to create some opportunities but came up short each time. With time winding down, DC had one last dangerous shot on goal but Yoder made a fantastic diving save to his left on a shot from the top of the box to keep the score 3-1. I was really proud of our guys they really battled hard. Even though we lost again, it was clearly the best game we’ve played so far. If not for a couple of defensive lapses and had we had just a few more good shots on goal we clearly could have beaten this team. I really don’t think that they’re two goals better than us. It’s too bad that our players are going to probably remember the refereeing. The truth of the matter is that we didn’t lose because of the referees. It was a well-played game by both sides. They just came away with the “w”…this time. We’ll get another crack at them at the end of October on their field.
      Hesston’s record drops to 2-7 for the season. The Larks next contest is scheduled for Wed October 2 at home against Region VI powerhouse Cloud County Community College.