After facing back-to-back Top 15 opponents over the past week, the Seward County Lady Saints women’s soccer team returned home to Liberal, Kansas to face off with conference rival Garden City where they were unable to take down the Broncbusters, falling 4-1 at home for their third straight loss.
Defensive intensity was the theme for the first half as both teams exchanged possessions through most of the first 45:00 minutes until Garden City was able to strike first and charged down the field for their first goal of the contest to put Seward County down 1-0 with 23:00 left in the first. Despite being down the Lady Saints continued to hold the line as goalkeeper Sydney Williams came up with a big save to hold off the Broncbusters from increasing their lead and that helped the Lady Saints gain some momentum to drive down the field with Natoya Atkinson leading the way with a banger into the opposite corner to tie things up at 1-1 with time winding down to go into halftime tied with Garden City.
The second half was a completely different story for both teams as the Broncbusters found an opening early in the first three minutes to connect for a goal and regain the lead at 2-1. Another goal ten minutes later put Garden City up 3-1 and Seward County could never recover as the Broncbusters wrapped things up with their final goal with three minutes left to take the win with a 4-1 score and hand the Lady Saints their third straight loss.
Atkinson was the sole player for SCCC to score with three total shot on goal attempts while Dayra Darte added two SOG attempts of her own. Williams recorded five saves through 90:00 minutes of action on nine SOG faced. Seward County now falls to 1-10-2 on their inaugural season in 2023 with their third straight loss in conference action as they will now take the next week off to prepare for Dodge City in a 3:00 PM matchup next Sunday at Redskin Field in Liberal, Kansas.