CLOUD COUNTY POWERS PAST DRAGONS WITH BIG SECOND HALF
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
The Hutchinson Community College women's soccer team missed out on a chance at its first conference championship since 2016 on Saturday night as the Cloud County Thunderbirds owned the second half for the second-straight game.
The Thunderbirds scored three second-half goals to erase a one-goal halftime deficit and won the 2019 Jayhawk West title outright with a 3-1 win on Saturday in front of 300 enthusiastic fans as the Salthawk Sports Complex.
The Blue Dragons finish second in the Jayhawk West with a 10-2 league record and a 12-3 overall record. Hutchinson finishes second in the Jayhawk West and will play host to a first-round Region VI Tournament game on Saturday, October 26 at the Salthawk Sports Complex.
Hutchinson was the aggressor in the first half and took a 1-0 lead just 5 minutes into the contest when Naomi Waithira's corner kick was headed into the goal by freshman Cheyenne Busker.
The Blue Dragons had three chances to extended the lead in the first half, but didn't convert on three 1v1 chances. The Dragons outshot Cloud County 10-5 in the opening half and led 1-0 at halftime.
Back in September at Concordia in the first meeting with Cloud County, the Dragons led 1-0, only to see Cloud County push the pace and score twice in a 2-1 T-Bird win.
Pretty much the same thing happened on Saturday.
The Thunderbirds started to attack the Dragons from long range.
Just 4 1/2 minutes into the second half, Franciele Cupertino worked the ball up the right side ling and launched a hard slow shot that evaded Dragon keeper Chiara Soergel to knot the game at 1-all.
Cloud County continued that tactic. In the 63rd minute, Julia rocketed a shot from the left side for a 2-1 lead with 27:43 to play. A little more than 5 1/2 minutes later, Izabella Mine scored a dagger for a 3-1 lead.
Soergel had six save and allowed a season-high three goals. Cloud keeper Thaynara Soares has eight saves.
Cloud County outshot Hutchinson 19-15