Emporia High soccer coach Steve Pearson knows his team isn’t going to out-size any of the other Centennial League teams. The Spartans simply don’t have much height to them.
That’s why Pearson believes it’s so important for his squad to be scrappier than team’s like Thursday night’s opponent, Manhattan — a team that across the board had a height advantage on every Emporia player.
In Pearson’s mind, the Spartans did out-hustle the Indians for a half on a nippy night at the TRYSA Soccer Complex, it just so happened that the improved play happened after the Spartans fell behind, 2-0.
“Hustle is all we have, because we do not out-size anyone in the eastern half of the state,” Pearson said. “We’ve got to out-run them and out-play them. It didn’t happen in the first half. In the second half, we looked like we should have looked.”
Emporia High (2-5-2) lost, 2-0, to the much bigger Indians after keeping Manhattan (4-4-1) scoreless in the second half, a fact that frustrated some of the EHS players.
“Skill-wise, we could match up with them,” EHS defender Juan Rangel said. “People just weren’t hustling when they needed to. We could have at least tied them.”
Manhattan opened its scoring in the 11th minute when Nick Johnson hit a shot from Josh Hughey off Rangel’s leg and into the upper right corner of the net to make it 1-0.
Then, in the 24th minute, Grant Johannes scored when he blasted an unassisted shot past Emporia High goalkeeper Spencer Anderson to put the Indians ahead, 2-0.
Both Manhattan goals came with Anderson facing west directly into the setting sun, making it hard for him to see the action on the field.
“I could not tell how far out they were or where the ball was,” said Anderson, who finished the night with nine saves. “The sun really messed with me.”
From then on, the Spartans played a more energized brand of soccer, but to no avail, as EHS could not muster any offense. Gary Rivera led the Spartans with five shots on goal.
“Same song, second verse,” Pearson said. “We can get the ball to where we get plenty of shots, but we just can’t get those shots to go in. We cannot find those magic forwards who can put the ball in the net consistently.”
The Spartans return to action Monday when they travel to Junction City.