Liberal, Kansas – Friday afternoon the Lady Saints of Seward County competed in an early day matchup with another top ten opponent in the #8 Butler Grizzlies where SCCC gained control in the first half with a goal in the 40th minute but gave up a pair in the second half to trail 2-1 when the final buzzer sounded.
The Lady Saints began the contest with the wind at their backs as they pushed down field to try and score early on as Natoya Atkinson and Dayra Dinarte each sent in powerful shots that ended up just out of range of the crossbar to keep the score blank. Seward County continued to pour on the pressure with the Grizzlies knocking the ball out of bounds to award SCCC a corner kick that landed at the feet of Eduarda Martins who would have scored an easy goal but was offsides by a few inches to prevent her from scoring. Martins got a second chance towards the end of the half as Dinarte sent in a free kick that was knocked away from the goal but reached Martins for a quick shot that landed in the center of the net to put Seward County ahead of Butler 1-0 entering the halftime break.
Throughout the first thirty minutes of the second half the Lady Saints managed to hold back the Grizzlies advancements as Seward County maintained a 1-0 lead over their top ten nationally ranked opponent. That lead vanished however as Butler earned a corner kick in the 75th minute that was knocked around before finding its way in the left side of the goal to lock the score back up at 1-1. The Lady Saints and Grizzlies were once again even on the scoreboard as both sides looked take over the lead in the final minutes of action to end with more than just a result for both sides. That task was accomplished by Butler who used the strong winds to their advantage as they sailed in a free kick that was caught and carried up over the outstretched hands of Ashley Acevedo for another goal that put Seward County behind 2-1 before the final horn sounded.
The Lady Saints now fall behind 2-11-4 overall on the 2024 season while dropping to 1-10-3 in Jayhawk conference action. They will wrap up their regular season schedule next week when they face Coffeyville on Wednesday with a 6:00 PM kickoff before taking on Barton in a 2:00 PM kickoff for sophomore day the following Saturday.
