Mavericks rewarded with continuation against Cowley Community College

GOODLAND, KS- Men's soccer looked to continue their unbeaten run from preseason against the Tigers. The Mav's took the initiative in the first 5 minutes with Joe Greener having his opportunity blocked by the studs (cleats) of the Tigers goalkeeper. The game then became an end to end encounter with both sides having the chance to break the dead lock. Then disaster strikes when the referee gave a penalty kick for an innocuous challenge in the box by Mavericks captain Ash Singh who won the ball cleanly. The Mavericks other captain Kieran Harrison received a yellow card for dissent shortly after making way for freshman Saahil Kapoor, who would face the Tigers PK. The Tigers #8 steps up tries to slot the ball in the top right corner which led to a miss leaving the Mavericks off the hook. Harrison returned to play and within five minutes makes a fantastic save from about 8 yards out. 

 

Mavericks started to take control of the game and were definitely the fitter team, after 55 minutes of play Khari Alexander the big #12 struck gold with a header from an Alfie Tonkin corner. Mavericks now lead 1 - 0. The Mavs continued to control the game for the next 30 minutes until in the 87th minute with just 3 minutes of regulation time left the Mavericks goalkeeper Kieran Harrison came to clear a long ball that rolled through to him, this play can be described as a field malfunction as the ball bobbled up to about hip height and jumped over Harrison's swinging right foot. At this point the Tiger #7 pounced on the opportunity and slotted the ball home 1-1 end of regulation. 

 

After a long fight the Mavericks entered overtime with their superior fitness which had the Tigers cramping and struggling by this point. For the next 20 minutes it seemed to be written in the stars that the Mavericks would strike home. It wasn't to be their heroic effort was reward with a continuation of being unbeaten but they didn't manage to bring home the "W". 

 

After the game Coach Carroll stated "That why we call soccer the beautiful game these things happen, Kieran made some very good saves, the field let him and us down. But it was the same field for both teams we shouldn't focus on that. If we could have been a bit more clinical in front of goal that one bump wouldn't have mattered. Still after a long bus ride, taking on one of the top teams in our conference on their turf and coming away with our unbeaten record in tact I am happy. To be honest I haven't seen the men's team play a full 90 minutes yet, it's going to be scary how good we could be if we can play constantly from the first whistle" 

 

The Mavericks will host their first home game Tuesday, Aug 29th against Northwestern Colorado Community College at 4 p.m.