Jay Daubenberger
After tying with the Blue Dragons in Liberal back in late August, the Lady Saints soccer team traveled out to Hutchinson to face their top twenty opponent for the second time but were unable to repeat the result as they fell 3-1 against the Blue Dragons.
It did not take long for points to get on the scoreboard, but it was Hutchinson who scored as they launched in goal number one exactly one minute into the contest. Seward County tried to mount a counterstrike with Natasha Vasquez and Natoya Atkinson each trying to connect in the goal to put SCCC on the board but were unable to accomplish their goals with the Blue Dragons holding on to their 1-0 lead. Miu Kamei fought hard against Hutchinson’s offensive strike with a multitude of saves to keep the deficit at one to try and help keep the Lady Saints in contention to make one final push to score before the halftime break. A goal was added to the scoreboard before the break but was in favor of the Blue Dragons who grabbed goal number two with under 10:00 minutes left in the first half to put Seward County in a 2-0 hole entering halftime.
SCCC entered the second half with flashbacks from August in the same scenario before scoring two goals to draw a result in game one. This game however did not feature the same result as Hutchinson scored their third goal of the afternoon at the 51:27 mark to take a 3-0 lead over Seward County. The Lady Saints refused to be shutout as they pushed forward and put the Blue Dragon’s goalkeeper to work with Dayra Dinarte sending in a pair of shot on goal attempts to soften up the opposing goalie before Nicole Calderon struck goal for SCCC. Calderon sailed in a perfect shot right into the upper right corner of the crossbar over the outreached hands of her opponent on a free kick to score Seward County’s only goal of the contest to make it 3-1 the rest of the way.
The Lady Saints now fall to 2-8-3 on the 2024 season while now dropping to 1-7-2 in Jayhawk conference action. Seward County will finally compete back on their home field this Saturday with a matchup against #12 Cowley with kickoff on Redskin Field scheduled for 12:00 PM.