Emporia High soccer coach Angel Cornejo held a meeting after school on Monday with his players.
The Spartans had lost four straight, but they had not played badly. Cornejo wanted his players to know that, but he also wanted them to know it was time to start winning this week and start building confidence with three games left in the regular season.
Behind two goals from star senior forward Alex Guevara, the Spartans followed coach’s orders, winning 2-1 on Monday night at home against Bishop Carroll.
“We were running into some good teams and we were just playing their game of soccer and we weren’t making them play our game of soccer,” senior Ryan Dorsey said, “and we needed this win to up our confidence for the next couple games to end the season.”
The Spartans mixed some of their own game and the Eagles’ game on Monday night. The Eagles were the most physical team the Spartans had played all season, and the Spartans were the better team skill-wise. But Cornejo realized that his team had to play physical to win this game, and he told the Spartans to fight back.
“Our guys in the first half were getting beaten every single place of the field,” Cornejo said. “I said, ‘Guys, you can play physical, let’s do it.’”
The Eagles’ overaggressive play cost them in the first half when Carroll’s Jared Ohm tackled Emporia’s Jose Rios in the box, giving Emporia a penalty kick. Guevara took the penalty kick and scored to tie the game with three minutes left in the half.
Bishop Carroll’s Keegan Hemberger had scored 37 seconds into the game, forcing the Spartans to play from behind in the first half.
“I had faith in the guys that they were ready to play,” Cornejo said. “I told them, ‘There’s plenty of time, don’t worry about it. ... We still have plenty of soccer to play and we’re going to win this game. We have to.’”
Guevara’s penalty kick goal gave the Spartans the momentum back and they looked like a different team after halftime, controlling the ball for most of the half.
In the ninth minute of the second half, the Spartans played a ball over the top into the box, and Jared Schaefer misdirected it off his head. The Bishop Carroll defender overran the ball, allowing it to bounce over his head right to the feet of Guevara.
Guevara had a similar opportunity against Topeka Seaman in overtime almost two weeks ago. Guevara rushed then and missed the shot and the Spartans went on to lose the game. This time around, he patiently dribbled in and beat the goalie to the right inside post for the game-winning goal.
“That (bounce) was lucky, but I still scored,” Guevara said.
The goal was Guevara’s 15th of the season and ended the Spartans’ four-game losing streak. They improved to 8-6 with the win.
“We played excellent,” Dorsey said. “First half we didn’t play as well. We kind of played their game, but second half we came alive. Everyone started stepping up and we had them play our game instead of theirs.”
The Spartans play again today at Wichita Heights at 4 p.m. and finish their regular season at Garden City on Thursday.