EHS soccer falls, 1-0
By Michael Ashford
Originally published 03:13 p.m., October 12, 2007
Updated 03:13 p.m., October 12, 2007
Before Thursday night’s game against Shawnee Heights, Emporia High boys soccer coach Steve Pearson told his players that whichever team made the first mistake would lose.
After the game, with the Spartans feeling the pain of a 1-0 loss, there was a problem.
Pearson never saw his team make any mistakes.
“They were hustling, they were passing, they were fighting for the ball, they were making intelligent moves,” Pearson said. “They did everything right. We didn’t make a mistake, and we still lost.
“They (Shawnee Heights) just got a good shot in, and we didn’t get our good shots in.”
Both defenses dominated the game right up until the end, as neither team got very many open looks at the goal. Shawnee Heights finished with just seven shots on goal while Emporia (10-4) had five.
And it took a wild series of events for Shawnee Heights (10-2-2) to get its lone score.
With less than three minutes remaining in the game, Heights’ Ryan Wohlgemuth took a shot from the left side of the field from about 30 yards out. Emporia goalkeeper Spencer Anderson dove for the ball and missed, but the ball ricocheted off the cross bar and bounced straight down right in front of the net.
Anderson hurried to get to his feet to grab the ball, but before he could, Derek Hayes jumped and knocked a header into the net to put Shawnee Heights ahead, 1-0, with 2:52 remaining.
“I dove, and at first I thought the ball went over the net,” Anderson said. “But it hit the bar and I scrambled to get up, and the guy was right there and I couldn’t get to the ball.
“It pretty was much two-on-one.”
That forced Emporia into scramble mode with so little time remaining.
The Spartans frantically tried to feed the ball downfield, sending pass after pass ahead only to be turned away by the Thunderbirds defense.
Then, with less that 20 seconds left, Emporia’s Adrian Trujillo finally broke loose after receiving a pass and took off sprinting toward the Heights goal. Trujillo took a shot from the left side from about 15 yards out, aiming for the right corner of the net after the Heights keeper went to his right.
But Trujillo’s shot trickled just wide of the goal by about a foot, and Adam Sanchez, who was trailing the play, could not get to it in time before the ball went out of bounds and the clock ran out.
“We had our chances,” Pearson said. “This was an even match all the way.
“I’m trying to figure out what we’re going to practice tomorrow. We’ll just do the same thing over again, I guess.”
The loss dropped Emporia into a tie with Shawnee Heights for the right to host the opening round of Regional play, with Shawnee Heights now holding the tiebreaker. Emporia has two games remaining during the regular season — both home games — against Wichita Heights on Tuesday and against Blue Valley on Thursday.
Shawnee Heights 1, Emporia 0
Thursday at Emporia
Shawnee Heights 0 1 — 1
Emporia 0 0 — 0
Shots on goal — SH 7, Emporia 5. Saves — SH: Derick Allen 5, Emporia: Spencer Anderson 6. Corner kicks — SH 1, Emporia 2. Fouls — SH 12, Emporia 19. Yellow cards — SH: Bryan Prentice. Emporia: Juan Rangel.
Records — Shawnee Heights (10-2-2), Emporia (10-4).