Ryan Land | Editor-In-Chief
Kenneth Aleri, midfielder, battles for the ball with an Allen County player during an Aug. 13 game at Roughrider field.
Ryan Land
Editor-In-Chief
After traveling to Chanute, Kan. on Sept. 10 and defeating Neosho County Community College, 2-0, the Roughrider soccer team holds a 5-2 overall record thus far in their 2014 campaign.
“I thought we played the first half as good a half as we’ve played all year,” said Brad Smith, head men’s soccer coach and physical education instructor. “For maybe 15-20 minutes in the second half, we’ve played maybe as good as Crowder has ever played. Having said that, we also probably played the worst 20 minutes we’ve played all year, during the last 20 minutes.”
After starting out with multiple wins in pre-season games, the Roughriders were able to pull out a 3-0 win against Eastern Oklahoma State University … a first year team, on Aug. 21.
After a dominating 11-1 victory over Hesston College on Aug. 24, the team lost their first game of the regular season to Coffeyville Community College, 2-1. The Ravens were able to open a 2-0 lead four minutes into the game. Evaristo Martinez, midfielder, scored a point before halftime, but the Roughriders were never able to fully recover from the attack of the first half.
“I don’t think we were ready to play,” Smith admitted. “We gave up two goals in the first four minutes and then outplayed them the rest of the game.”
The Roughriders would not let the loss to Coffeyville keep them down, as they went on to earn a shutout 12-0 victory against Springfield based Baptist Bible College on Aug. 30.
Riding off of a strong victory, the team traveled over seven hours to Dallas, Texas to face off against Mountain View College. The game almost went to overtime, but Abeselom Mekennon, midfielder, scored the point needed to leave Dallas victorious.
The team would return to Neosho to face St. Louis Community College, only to lose 2-1 before heading out on the road again to see Neosho County.
Now holding a 0-1 record in Region 16 play, Smith and the team are continuing to work towards their goal of finishing in the top four in the region.
“We’d like to get a home game for the playoffs,” stated Smith. “That’s our top goal. We met our goal for the first third of the season with winning four out of the six games and we have a goal for the next six games. We’re on our way to that and we’ll see what happens.”
“We’re trying to win most of our regional games,” said Brandon Coyle, goal keeper. “We have many other goals but it’s just the same as any other soccer team, just go out there, play hard, and get better.”
The team returns home on Sept. 13 to host Indian Hills Community College at 2 p.m. before taking on Maple Woods Community College at 4 p.m. on Sept. 16.
If you are unable to make it to a game in person, you can view it live on www.ihigh.com/crowdercollege/.
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