The Great Bend High School girls’ soccer team fell short on Thursday against Garden City, losing 2-1 at Cavanaugh Field.
The Lady Panthers, who battled Garden City to a 0-0 tie in their last meeting on April 7, had chances to take the lead after tying the game at 31:46 mark in the second half when Rubi Torres crossed the ball inside the Garden City goalie’s box.
Lady Buffaloes goalkeeper Tracy Martinez got out of the goal to bat the ball away, but Kaylee Kerschner was there to strike a shot into the open net on the rebound.
With the game tied and 16:50 remaining on the clock, Berenice Prieto was given a penalty kick after a Garden City defender committed a hand ball inside the goalie’s box.
Her kick was offline and Martinez was able to scoop up the shot.
“The big difference is we missed a penalty kick and they scored on a free kick,” GBHS head coach Gus Prieto said. “We had the moment. We kept the ball on their side. We tied the game. We had the P.K., but after that, they were kind of disappointed. We had chances on the right side, but that changed the game.”
Four minutes later, Lady Buffaloes forward Ana Guevara struck a free kick off of the cross bar to score the game-winning goal for Garden City, which has never lost to Great Bend according to Prieto.
“Today was a good chance to beat them,” Prieto said. “You know, we missed that (penalty kick) and that made a difference. In the second half, we kept the ball on (their) side against the wind, and they have a free kick and they score. That hurt. When we are working and controlling the ball, and they come up and take one shot and score. It’s hard.”
The Lady Panthers fall to 5-7-2 on the season, including a Western Athletic Conference record of 2-5-1. Garden City improves to 8-3-2, 5-0-1.
This marks the sixth one-goal loss for Great Bend this season.
“I think we had bad luck again,” Prieto said. “I think six games we’ve lost by one goal, and they were close. There isn’t a difference between us and the other teams, but probably we need to work a little more. We’re playing at 80 percent and we need probably 20 more percent.”
With 9:51 remaining in the first half, the Lady Buffs struck first after a corner kick was cleared back to the sideline. From there, Guevara, who had taken the corner kick, drove another shot into the goalie’ s box.
The shot ricocheted off of the goal frame on the opposite side and went in.
“She is a strong player,” Prieto said of Guevara. “She has really good skills and you can see her, she’s fast, too. I put the personal mark on her and we stopped her. She scored on a free kick and the defense had nothing to do there. I told my defense, ‘try to keep her out of the goalie’s box.’ That way she’s not going to score, and they did it.”
Great Bend plays McPherson at home on Tuesday afternoon with the junior varsity game beginning at 4.