BY JIM MISUNAS

jmisunas@gbtribune.com

The Great Bend soccer team enjoyed a near perfect Tuesday afternoon at Cavanaugh Field.

Panther Elwin Fiso scored three athletic goals to spark a 12-2 victory over Hays Thomas More Prep. Nine players scored goals as the Panthers created goal-after-goal with pinpoint passing. Fiso started the scoring fest with a header in the opening minutes. Crisitian Ruiz fed Fiso for a second goal and Fiso capped a magical afternoon with an assist by Jonathan Pasos.

At one point, the Panthers four goals in a three-minute stretch.

Great Bend (4-6) needed a victory to keep pace with 5A regional foes Salina South (5-4-1), Salina Central (3-4-1) and rival Hays High (3-7). WAC rival Garden City visits Thursday for another home game.

"Our goal was to play everybody and we did that," Loera said. "It was a good game, an opportunity to get younger players some varsity minutes. We kept our key varsity guys to minimal minutes. We've got a tougher game ahead Thursday against Garden City." 

Loera enjoyed seeing crisp passing and solid teamwork from start-to-finish.

"It was nice to score early goals," Loera said. "We need to play a fast pace and high quality soccer when we play the tough teams. We had a full rotation and that was good for us."

Also scoring goals with assists were Crisitian Ruiz, Mario Arias (perfect give-and-go with Jonathan Ruiz); Jonathan Pasos (Mario Arias assist); Jaime Arellanes (Jason Villarreal assist); Ramiro Rocha and Gustavo Alvarado for a 9-2 halftime lead. Monarch Nate Wechsler converted a pair of first-half goals for TMP.  

The 9-2 halftime lead gave Loera time to play his backup players the entire second half. Jonathan Ruiz, Jonathan Lira and Ramiro Rocha off a nifty assist by Jason Villarreal finished off the 10-goal victory.