Soccer Game Report
Hesston vs. Cloud County, Oct. 2, 2002, Hesston

  1st 2nd Final
Cloud County   
5
1
6
Hesston
0
0
0

Coach's Comments--
      For the first time this season the Hesston College Larks had to play in less than ideal conditions. The rain began earlier in the day and gave no indication of relenting. However, it wasn’t the rain that dampened the Larks’ spirits. It was the excellent play of their opponent. From the first whistle to start the game it was clear that the Larks were in for a tough battle. Cloud is an excellent team. They managed to beat Johnson County just last week pretty handily 3-0. And that’s no easy task. Especially considering that Johnson was undefeated in our region and ranked 10th in the country up until that point. They have one particular player in the middle, Andrew Rhea, who is extremely talented. He controls and distributes through the middle like no one else in our region. And like many of our regional opponents they are fast and quick at every position.
      Cloud scored early in the game – just five minutes in – and often as they racked up five first half goals. With the scoring, the rain began to come down even harder making the field very sloppy. Hesston didn’t mount much of an attack the first half. Cloud managed to keep the Larks pinned in their half for most of the first 45 minutes. They passed the ball around very well. They just moved the ball quicker than we could recover defensively. But to my players credit they kept battling hard.
      With Cloud up 5-0 at the half it would have been easy for the Larks to give in, but they seemed to come out with a renewed determination. We decided at half that the important thing was no longer the score but that we just try to improve our play in the second half. And for the most part I think we did. I’m really proud of my team. It’s a tribute to their strong character that they’re willing to play hard in such overwhelming circumstances. Many teams would just give up but we didn’t. The second half clearly took on a different look, as Hesston was better able to move the ball around and actually mount some attacks. Even though Cloud managed one more goal and we didn’t really come too close to finding the back of the net it was a nice moral victory to keep pace a little better. Although Cloud managed six goals, Hesston keeper Danny Yoder – playing in place of the injured Kyle Beun – made several fantastic saves. The truth of the matter is that Cloud is just very good and they played like it. Yes, we could have played better but there’s no shame in losing to them. Danny really did have a good game in spite of the score. It could easily have been much worse. It’s nice to have two quality keepers playing for us. Danny has been a real trooper this season. He didn’t get much playing time early on but never once complained. And now when he’s needed he responds really well. We don’t have many wins but I can’t say enough good things about this team. They are fun to be around and they really do play hard. If wins were earned by character alone this team would be a dominant force. We are improving and the wins will come. It’s just a matter of practice and time.
      The Larks next contest will be Fri Oct 4 at home against Rhema Bible College at 7:30 p.m. Rhema beat us once already but we know that we can beat them. The guys are really looking forward to that game. (As of the writing of this article the Rhema game was postponed due to extremely poor field conditions – a rain soaked field. The game will be made up the 17th of October with a time to be announced. The next game will be against Barton County at home on Tues Oct 8th at 7:30 p.m. Another tough test indeed.)