Tiger soccer team dominates Seward 4-0, advances to district final

One game after Cowley College's Hayata Kobayashi scored a hat trick in a 4-0 win against Dodge City, Tiger sophomore Shogo Haraikawa equaled the feat in a 4-0 win over Seward County on Wednesday in the Plains District semifinal match in Arkansas City.

Cowley (13-1-3) advances to the district title game, where they will face Barton Community College (12-6-3) on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Chanute, KS. Seward had its season come to an end with a record of 8-6-5.

After tying both regular season meetings between the two teams, Cowley played with a purpose on Wednesday. Sophomore Shogo Haraikawa got the scoring started for the Tigers, and only 19 seconds later, Andre Ecker scored on a penalty kick to give Cowley a 2-0 lead with 37:41 remaining in the first half.

Haraikawa would add his second goal of the first half off an assist from Carmello Bello as the Tigers' lead grew to 3-0 with 4:42 left before halftime.

Haraikawa would complete the hat trick by scoring his third goal with 24:24 left to play, and Cowley goalkeeper Kamy Ndione had to stop just one shot in the 4-0 win.

"It was a huge win and a display of professionalism by our boys," Cowley head coach Ruy Vaz said. "We knew it would be an emotional game, but we just played soccer and focused on what we could control."

Cowley played Barton twice in the regular season, defeating the Cougars 2-0 in Arkansas City and tying Barton 2-2 when the teams played in Great Bend.

"This next game is a final against a big rival, so there's no need to state the importance of the contest," Vaz said. "We have to stay balanced and emotionally stable to face Barton, as they are very talented."