BULLPUP KICKERS UPSET BY ANDOVER CENTRAL!
By William for www.mcpherson-county-ks.com
(Post is SPONSORED by CrossDove Marketing)
ANDOVER – It was a tough day for the McPherson High boys’ soccer team on Thursday as they took a trip south to Andover and returned home with an upset 4-2 loss.
Andover Central scored an early goal but the Bullpups did not back down as Drew Schrader scored twice in the first half off assists from Samy Jaime and Tyler Hoxie.
Unfortunately, the Bullpups were unable to find the back of the net in the second half while Andover added a couple of more goals to score the 4-2 upset win.
For the game, McPherson made 10 total shots on goal while Bullpup goalkeeper Nathan Lloyd made seven saves.
“This was a tough loss to take considering how well the boys played in the first half,” noted Bullpup Head Coach Chris Adrian. “We found ourselves down a goal in the opening minute of the game, but the guys didn’t panic and quickly tied things up after a nice play from Samy (Jaime) created an easy goal for Drew (Schrader) to tap in. The team kept pushing and really dominated the middle of the field in the first half. Tyler (Hoxie) and Britton (Haigh) covered a ton of ground and played great games. With about ten minutes to go, Drew (Schrader) got his second goal of the game off a Tyler (Hoxie) flick and we were all over Andover Central at that time. We really pushed to get the third goal, but it didn’t come.”
Coach Adrian continued his post-game reflections by talking about the second half of play, saying, “Andover Central came out and played really aggressive in the second half and put us on our heels. A little bit of panic set in and the players began to make uncharacteristic mistakes which gave Andover Central’s key players opportunities to beat us one-on-one and they took advantage of that. Down 2-3 in the final ten minutes, I started to throw more players forward which lead to a late goal to make the score 2-4. Offensively, against arguably the best defense we have played against, I believe we played our best game and we really could have scored four goals ourselves.”
“Samy (Jaime) had a breakout game and played with confidence which was really good to see,” said Coach Adrian as he concluded his reflections. “On defense, we had periods where we looked great tonight against a really dangerous offense but then we would make a silly mistake and gift Andover Central a chance to score. The experience we gained tonight though is going to be extremely valuable for this team at the end of the season. It felt like a post season type game and Andover Central is always a difficult place to play with their student section. Overall, I feel really proud of the boys and take so many positives from the first half especially, the guys really played and competed as a team for the first forty minutes. It was fun to watch.”
The day did not get any better for the Bullpup junior varsity kickers as they lost 3-0.
Next up for the Bullpup kickers will be on Tuesday when they host El Dorado at McPherson College Stadium.
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