Recap: Boys’ Soccer vs. Lawrence Free State

The boys’ soccer team beat Lawrence Free State last Thursday night 8-1 at the Shawnee Mission Soccer Complex. This win puts the Lancers at 2-1-0 in season play and 3-3-0 in all match play.

The Lancers started the scoring early with a short pass into the box which found an open senior midfielder Josh Zillner, who blasted the ball into the top of the net from close range in the 27 minute. Four minutes later, the Free State goalie fumbled picking up the ball and junior striker Andrew Mulligan capitalized off the mistake, sending it into the back of the net. Within two minutes, senior wing Drew Terry had put in a third goal for East.

Free State struck back from range with 18 minutes left in the half, putting away a hard shot into the lower left hand corner from distance. The game went into the half 3-1 with the Lancers in the lead.

The second half opened up with a burst of energy from both teams. Free State came down the field on their possession, but couldn’t come up with a goal to take away from it. The Lancers immediately struck back a drive down field of their own, finished off with senior striker Ari Throckmorton slotting the ball into the lower left hand corner of the goal. From there, the Lancers went on to score four more goals in half to win 8-1.

The Lancers’ next game will be this Friday night against Mill Valley at the Shawnee Mission Soccer Complex.

Interview after the game Head Coach Jamie Kelly:

What helped give you this big win tonight?
We had more composure around the goal box, around the offensive net. In the last five games we’ve gotten chances, we just haven’t put them away. This time we actually put the ball in the back of the net. We did a great job of getting the ball wide and feeding those balls across the middle and really having lots of movement in that final third [of the pitch] to create our opportunities.

On passes in the final third of the field:
We’ve been working on the final third last week really to try to simulate those kinds of situations when the boys fall into them, they’re not playing nervous, they’re not thinking about ‘oh I have to score this,’ they’re just in a more natural situation where you’re just thinking about just technique, get the ball on frame and just having confidence really.

On three starting sophomores:
I thought they played great. Grayson [Rapp] and Clayton [Phillips] had been starting most of the night, and Stanley [Moranz] is just a work horse. He just goes in and he just works hard every single time. He deserved the start. He deserved to go in there and play.

On Friday night’s game against Mill Valley:
They are a good team. They’re kind of like Free State. They have some athletic kids. I think technically we’ll be a better team so if we can continue to do what we did tonight and work the ball around and use our passing and our possession to create our opportunities again, then I think we can do this all again. Hopefully we won’t get too overconfident and we’ll realize this was just one game. One of the main things I’m going to be preaching to them tomorrow is it’s great to win a game like this, but it means nothing if we come out tomorrow and we lose.

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