Lucky and undefeated — Emporia High’s soccer team was the former on Monday, and because of it, they’re still the latter as of right now.
The Spartans won their opening game at the Titan Classic on Monday in Wichita, defeating Wichita East 1-0. The lone goal, a score by Hector Najera off a rebound with 16 minutes remaining, was one of just four shots on goal that the Spartans managed. They’re now 3-0 on the season.
“We won by pure luck,” EHS coach Angel Cornejo said. “I guess it was meant for us to win. They had a total of 21 shots on goal, three shots off the post and one PK. Still, they could not score. We had four shots on goal, all in the second half, and scored once. They were superior in offense, but our defense worked so hard to not give them space and take good shots. Most of the shots they took, they had a defender next to them.”
Najera’s goal, his second of the season, came after an angled shot by Jesus Saldana bounced away from Wichita East goalkeeper Gary Rodriguez. With about five minutes remaining, Wichita East had a chance to tie the game with a penalty kick, but the shot went over the crossbar.
“Those (last) five minutes seemed to wind down really slow,” Cornejo said.
Goalkeeper Cory Obermeyer stopped 17 shots for the Spartans, who will return to action at the Classic on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., when they take on Wichita Heights.
“The stats don’t look good for us, but we took advantage of the very few opportunities we had,” Cornejo said. “At the end we won. And a win is a win.”