Join our Mailing List!
Please click the link below to sign up for your community paper mailing list. Stay up to date with all the events going on in your community as well as the latest news.Sign Up Today!
Bulldogs can't solve Lee's Summit West
By Chris Geinosky
If the Kearney High girls soccer team ever defeats Lee’s Summit West, it looks like it’s going to have to happen in a non-conference setting.
The Titans made it two straight undefeated Small Six Conference titles and four consecutive league wins against the Bulldogs with a 4-1 victory May 7 in Lee’s Summit. Kearney had to settle for conference runner-up honors for a second straight year.
“The score doesn’t indicate how well we played,” Kearney coach Jackie Haller said. “We had our chances, and when we were desperately trying to get a goal toward the end, we gave up a couple late ones that made it look worse than it really was.
“They’re just physically too big for us. They knock us off the ball, and we can’t win one in the air against them.”
After the Titans jumped up to a 2-0 halftime lead, Kearney trimmed the lead in half shortly after the intermission on an Erin Easter goal off an assist from Tanner Brown. However, the Bulldogs never got the equalizer, then surrendered two goals in the final 10 minutes when they tried to sell out offensively.
With the loss, Kearney saw its 11-match winning streak and run of 10 consecutive shutouts — both program records — come to an end. A victory would not have only continued those streaks, it would have forged a tie for the Small Six title.
“I would much rather play Lee’s Summit West twice and lose than not play them at all,” Haller said. “We’re only going to become a better soccer team by playing competition like that.”
n The Bulldogs officially wrapped up second place in the conference by sweeping Ruskin in a rare soccer doubleheader May 6 in Kearney.
Goals came in bunches for the Bulldogs as they blasted the Eagles 12-0 in the first game and 14-0 in the nightcap.
Twelve different girls scored in the two games. Easter led the way with five goals, and Brown tallied four. Junior sweeper Kate Flinn netted the first varsity goal of her career.
printable version
e-mail this story
The Titans made it two straight undefeated Small Six Conference titles and four consecutive league wins against the Bulldogs with a 4-1 victory May 7 in Lee’s Summit. Kearney had to settle for conference runner-up honors for a second straight year.
“The score doesn’t indicate how well we played,” Kearney coach Jackie Haller said. “We had our chances, and when we were desperately trying to get a goal toward the end, we gave up a couple late ones that made it look worse than it really was.
“They’re just physically too big for us. They knock us off the ball, and we can’t win one in the air against them.”
After the Titans jumped up to a 2-0 halftime lead, Kearney trimmed the lead in half shortly after the intermission on an Erin Easter goal off an assist from Tanner Brown. However, the Bulldogs never got the equalizer, then surrendered two goals in the final 10 minutes when they tried to sell out offensively.
With the loss, Kearney saw its 11-match winning streak and run of 10 consecutive shutouts — both program records — come to an end. A victory would not have only continued those streaks, it would have forged a tie for the Small Six title.
“I would much rather play Lee’s Summit West twice and lose than not play them at all,” Haller said. “We’re only going to become a better soccer team by playing competition like that.”
n The Bulldogs officially wrapped up second place in the conference by sweeping Ruskin in a rare soccer doubleheader May 6 in Kearney.
Goals came in bunches for the Bulldogs as they blasted the Eagles 12-0 in the first game and 14-0 in the nightcap.
Twelve different girls scored in the two games. Easter led the way with five goals, and Brown tallied four. Junior sweeper Kate Flinn netted the first varsity goal of her career.