The Great Bend High School boys’ soccer team could not stop Hays’ offense Monday night, losing 5-1.
The Panthers just came off of a successful road trip, winning two of three and making it to the championship game of the Titans Classic hosted by Wichita South. As a result, Monday’s game was the Panthers’ fourth game in eight days.
“The kids were telling me they were tired for this game,” Panthers head coach Gus Prieto said. “We played our last game Saturday, and we had a small practice Sunday.”
Hays jumped on the weary Panthers early, scoring its first goal seven minutes into the game.
“I think we started out pretty good,” Prieto said. “After they scored their first goal, I think we just shut down.”
The Panthers had an opportunity to tie the game early, when a pass got through the defense to Jose Mijares in front of the goal, but Mijares was unable to plant the ball into the back of the net.
That was the only challenge for the Hays keeper in the first half from the Panthers.
“We need to work on our passing,” Mijares said. “Our passes just were not on target. Also, we need to not rely on Oscar as much. Right now, we are just trying to feed him the ball.”
Hays put two more shots into the net before halftime. The first was on a penalty kick from Soriba Camara.
“(Camara), he’s a player from Africa,” Prieto said. “He is a very good, very fast player. When we were preparing for this game, the defense knew they needed to stop him and they did. We just left other players open.”
Great Bend began the second half with a great scoring opportunity when Alexander Urias broke past the Indians’ defense for a one-on-one with the keeper, but Urias’ shot went wide of the goal.
The Indians score another two goals in the second half to advance to 5-0.
The Panthers finally got on the board with less than seven minutes left in the game. Enrique Guyton was able to beat the Indians’ defense and plant the ball into the back of the net.