In past seasons, the Junction City boys soccer team has been an easy win for Emporia and other schools in the Centennial League. But after taking his team on the road to play the Blue Jays Tuesday, Spartans coach Angel Cornejo said Junction City could be the surprise of the Centennial League this season.
Junction City beat Emporia 1-0 on a Baxton Chase goal that came with two minutes remaining in the second overtime. Had the game remained scoreless for two more minutes, it would have ended in a draw.
“They seem to have a different mentality,” Cornejo said. “They’re just aggressive and their forward, actually two of them, those kids can run.”
Emporia outshot Junction City but couldn’t seem to get the ball through. The Spartans had 16 shots in the game to the Blue Jays’ five.
“Their goalie had excellent saves,” Cornejo said. “We had several chances to score, I think it was just luck, or maybe the goalie is really good, but he made really good saves today.”
The Spartan defense managed to keep Junction City away from the goal area for most of the game, limiting the Blue Jays to just five shots. Cornejo said two of Junction City’s best chances of the evening were thwarted on saves by Spartan goalkeeper Elvis Delacruz.
For the complete story see the Gazette print edition or the online print edition at http://www.emporiagazette.com/pdf. To subscribe to the print edition or the online print edition go to http://www.emporiagazette.com/subscribe.