By Donna & Amy White
The Haysville Times
The weather could not have been better for Campus soccer fans on Tuesday. The Colts played their first game of the Campus/Goddard Invitational on Tuesday against Winfield. The game would also be the team’s first home game of the season.
Campus may have the deck stacked against them this year. The Colts have a young team with the freshmen and sophomore members outnumbering the upper class 27 to 10. These younger players will have to make the extra effort to step up to strengthen the team.
The Colts are coached once again by Head Coach Jeromy Swearingen and assistants Casey Meier, Crystal Edwards and Ryan Daugherty. These four individuals have the sometimes-undesired task of trying to guide the team in the right direction.
Five seniors lead the team this year; they include Brandon Daley, Chris Taylor, Brian Box, Nick Hovey and Eric Longstreet. Juniors include Tracy Crum, Gabe Massey, Marc Mayer, James Terronez and Sam Rudd. Seven sophomores round out the varsity squad; they include CJ Manuel, Tre Doherty, Jordan Hooper, Kevin Ayala, Sylvester Ribaudo, Dustin Crum and James Haynes. And freshman Taylor Parrott will fill the backup goalkeeper position.
The Colts first game of the season was a 1-1 tie against Bishop Carroll last Tuesday. On Thursday, the team followed up with a loss to Maize. So the Colts took the long weekend to refresh and look ahead to this week’s tournament.
Campus’ first game of the Campus/Goddard Invitational took place on Tuesday against Winfield. The first half of the game had the Colts coming up short on offense. It just seemed like they were not able to finish the run to the goal. And with just over 12 minutes left in the half, the most discouraging thing happened. The Colts were standing in the wrong place at the wrong time and gave Winfield their first goal by own goal. Campus went into the halftime break down 0-1.
After the break, the Colts seemed to come back better than ever. In the second half, there were many very close shots on goal. However, none of those shots ever found the back of the net. And sooner than later, the Colts focus was shifted to defense.
About halfway through the second half, Winfield increased their lead to 2 with another goal. Campus tried their best to slow down Winfield’s offense and almost succeeded. But with less than three minutes left in the game, Winfield hit the upper corner of the net for their third goal to win the game, 0-3.
You have to give Campus goalie Eric Longstreet an A for effort on that last goal because he gave everything he had to save that ball. We also have to give some recognition to sophomores Jordan Hooper and Kevin Ayala who played the entire game with heart and never gave up.
So Campus moves to the non-winner (no L-words) side of the bracket and will face off again on Thursday at 3:30 pm. A win will place the Colts in the battle for fifth place on Saturday in Goddard at 11 am. A loss will see the Colts at 9 am on Saturday in Goddard. After the tournament, Campus will not return home until Thursday, September 14th against Salina South.
In other Campus sports, the football team lost their first game of the season in Goddard last Friday. The Colts will play their first home game this Friday at Colt