BLUE DRAGONS EARN KEY DRAW WITH RIVAL GRIZZLIES
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
The 25th all-time women's soccer meeting between Hutchinson Community College and Butler lived up to the some of the top games ever played in one of the Jayhawk Conference's top rivalries regardless of sport.
Adriana Delgado scored the game-tying goal with 3:31 to play in the second half and the No. 16 Blue Dragons rallied to earn a huge 1-1 draw with the No. 9-ranked Grizzlies on Wednesday at the Salthawk Sports Complex. This was the first draw in series history.
For just the third time since 2010, the Blue Dragons earned a point from a Top 10-ranked team. The last time was a 2-2 draw against No. 6 Kansas City in 2021.
The Blue Dragons improve to 5-0-2 overall and 2-0-2 (eight points) in the Jayhawk Conference. Butler is now 1-1-4 and 0-1-3 (3 points) in the KJCCC. The Blue Dragons travel to Coffeyville on Saturday.
Down 1-0 entering the later stages of the second half, the Blue Dragons hadn't created much offense in the second half with just one shot on goal that occurred in the first minute of the half.
Tatiana Mayumi worked a ball through some open field in the middle third and looked to chip a pass into the penalty area. Instead, the Grizzlies deflected the ball right to Delgado, who lobbed a shot from 22 yards out just under the cross bar and over the hand of Butler goalkeeper Carla Apodaca with the game-tying goal with 3:31 to play in the second half.
The draw was preserved after Blue Dragon goalkeeper Karsyn Slothower came up with a huge save, the Dragon defense blocked another shot and the Grizzlies didn't convert on a corner kick in the final minute.
Slothower made seven critical saves in the match to improve to 5-0-2 for the season, five saves coming in the second half.
Slothower made two saves in the first half and the Grizzlies' Sakiko Manabe stuck a shot off the crossbar with 12 seconds to play in the half to take a scoreless tie into halftime.
Butler scored the first goal, which was set up from a corner kick. After initially missing on the corner, Emma Kolbe sent a cross into the box that was headed of the right post by Alayna Runck. The ball rolled parallel down the goal line and Runck beat Slothower to the loose ball and knocked it into the goal with 27:02 to play.
The Blue Dragons were out-shot 25-14. Butler's Apodaca made four saves.
Delgado, who earlier in the day was named the NJCAA National Division I Player of the Week, scored her ninth goal of the season.