TOPEKA, Kan. – On Tuesday, the Junction City girls’ soccer team hosted Wichita Homeschool and lost what was a very close match throughout the majority of the duration, 3-0.
“As a whole, I think we played our best total game today,” JCHS head coach Mitchell DeHoff said. “Defensively we were much more solid and our shape and pressing was a lot better than it was against Manhattan. Wichita Homeschool is a solid team and they play good defense and we were still able to create scoring opportunities and that will bode well for us going into the rest of this week.”
The match was scoreless for most of the first half until Wichita got on the board with 3:06 to play in the first half. Junction City kept things within that one goal throughout the first 30 minutes of the second half thanks to a strong defensive effort led by sophomore goalkeeper Sophia Holloway who had several great saves throughout the game.
The Warriors scored their second goal with 6:14 to play and added a third with 2:24 to play.
In the future, DeHoff hopes his teams finds a way to hone in on the smaller details of their game to avoid defensive miscues.
“It’s just about recognizing situations and learning what you need to do in that situation,” DeHoff said. “I think all three of our goals came from not realizing what was happening around the ball and around the game. Whether that’s one person stepping up too far or someone marking the wrong person leaving someone open. It’s those little things that we need to clean up because if they can find the open person then they’re open to shoot.”
THE LADY JAYS traveled to Topeka West on Thursday and won 8-0. They led 2-0 at the half and poured on six more goals to finish out the game.
Freshman Anna Bailey turned in a hat trick followed by two goals for Breana Reilly and one each for senior Mindy Lechuga-Nevarez, sophomore Arianna Gold and senior Karla Love.
Junction City got assists from senior Vittoria Benoit, senior Cha’Vontae Davis, Love, junior Brooke Swango and sophomore Mariah Jackson.
Holloway and the Lady Jay defense got their second shutout of the season.
Junction City will travel back to Topeka to face a Highland Park team that has yet to win a game this season.
