Blue Dragons soccer edges past Western Wyoming

By Colin Shields
Online Editor

The Hutchinson Community College women’s soccer team used a stout defensive effort to pull past the Western Wyoming Mustangs in a 1-0 win Sunday at the Salthawk Sports Complex.

The win gave the Blue Dragons a successful home opener and also improved their record to 4-0. 

Blue Dragons coach Sammy Lane was especially pleased with the back half of the Blue Dragons defense, as they held the Mustangs to just six total shots and zero shots on goal. 

“We’ve basically limited teams to having to take shots from outside the box. Very rarely do teams get behind us into the box and score goals” said Coach Lane. “I thought today we were good.” 

Offensively, Sophomore Aimee Maher converted a penalty kick in the 25th minute to give the Dragons the early advantage. 

The Dragons offense generated five shots on goal, and the Mustangs keeper, Alison Collinwood, was able to save four of the shots. 

Even with the win, Lane said he sees opportunity for continued improvement.

“We have to play much better than that,” Lane said. “We played great against KCK up there in Kansas City, and they’re a good team. We played really good there, and so I thought we turned the corner and it looked like we knew what we were doing and we were getting it in certain situations, and knowing exactly what we were doing when we attacked, and today it looked like we were back to the first day of training camp.”

A positive, however, was the noticeable effort the Blue Dragons put forth.

“There was a lot of effort, but it was just huff and puff and puff, there was no real pattern to our play,” Lane said.

The Dragons now turn their attention to Garden City as they open conference play Wednesday on the road. 

“We’ll train in the afternoon Tuesday to make sure we’re used to the heat because the heat really does zap the girls and work on our pattern of play,” Lane said.

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