Friday night, during Great Bend High School’s boys’ soccer scrimmage, three players from the varsity offense stood out as goal-scoring threats.
After the junior varsity offense scored first, the varsity began pouring in goals.
The first varsity goal was scored by junior forward Oscar Torres.
“Oscar is really fast,” Panthers head coach Gus Prieto said. “He can play the whole field, and he makes good passes.”
The highlight of the night came at the end of the first half when Noel Rodriguez scored his first of two goals in style, flipping upside down for a bicycle kick to bury the ball in the back of the net.
“That is the first goal like that we’ve had in four or five years,” Prieto said. “We call that play, ‘Chilena.’”
Even though playing on a turf field is different than playing on their grass, Prieto said that he used the game to gauge whether to put the last two or three players on varsity or on junior varsity.
“There were a few kids that I wasn’t sure which team to put them on, but now I know,” Prieto said. “The field is different. The ball is too fast, everything is different.”
The team played without their only senior, Kevin Manase, who missed the scrimmage due to personal reasons.
“We missed Manase,” Prieto said. “He is a very fast player. We will have him for our first game though.”
The Panthers’ first game is at home against Liberal, Thursday at 4 p.m.
“Liberal is one of the best teams in the state,” Prieto said, “so it will be a good test to see how the team does.”
Great Bend varsity unveils its sharpshooters
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