No. 4-ranked Tiger soccer team remains unbeaten with 3-1 road win
Playing its conference opener at Seward County on Sunday in Liberal, KS, the No. 4-ranked Cowley College men’s soccer team remained unbeaten with a 3-1 victory over the Saints.
The Tigers improve to 3-0 and 1-0 in the Jayhawk Conference, while Seward (2-2) falls to 0-2 in conference play.
"It was important to start conference play with three points, and for the most part, the team did a good job," Cowley head coach Marcos Ribeiro said.
Cowley started the scoring when Keitatsu Yoshida scored off an assist from Kanta Ishii with 17:18 left before halftime. After Leonardo Leitao scored off another assist from Ishii, it appeared the Tigers would go into the half with a 2-0 lead.
However, the Tigers let their guard down and allowed Seward's Zahit Garibay to score on the Saints' lone shot attempt of the first half with only one second remaining before halftime.
Cowley regrouped at halftime and responded well in the second half, taking 16 shots, compared to only three from Seward.
After his two assists in the first half, Ishii scored his second goal of the season in the early moments of the second half, and the Tigers held on for the 3-1 road win.
Cowley outshot Seward 23-4.
"We missed several chances in front of the goal, plus missing a penalty kick," Ribeiro said. "Fortunately, we have the entire week to fix those things."
The Tigers will remain on the road to play at Garden City on Saturday at 3 p.m. The Broncbusters are 4-1-2 overall and 0-1 in the Jayhawk Conference.
"We need to be prepared to play Garden City, which will be a tough game, as it is always complicated to play there," Ribeiro said.