With eight teams left in the Class 5A boys’ high school soccer playoffs, Great Bend is slated to play Kapaun Mt. Carmel in the quarterfinals.
The Panthers will play the Crusaders at Stryker Field in Wichita tonight at 7.
“I know they have the same record as us, 15-3 overall,” GBHS head coach Gus Prieto said. “They have good speed and they play well together. We’ve never played them before, so we don’t know what to expect.”
Great Bend is coming off of a South Central Region 2 championship game in which it had the opposite problem, playing Western Athletic Conference rival it knew too well.
The Panthers beat Hays 3-2 after four overtime periods and 24 penalty kicks in a shootout. Alexander Urias scored the winning goal in the shootout, and Ivan Galindo stepped in as goalie.
“We made mistakes in the first half,” Prieto said of the game against Hays. “I’m not happy with it because we beat them twice this season, and we put ourselves in a position to have to play harder to tie the game.”
Prieto did say that one good thing came out of the win.
“I liked it because they know that they have to start strong,” Prieto said. “We just need to play together and play 100 percent. It can make a difference. We have to play strong in the first half and finish strong.”