The Garden City Telegram

Well, Garden City for one.

"With the circumstances, I think we've done well," Broncbusters head coach Steve Gorton said after his team held off No. 14 Northern Oklahoma College on Monday 2-1 at Memorial Stadium.

"It's been tough. We went one win, one tie, one loss -- it's not what we expected, but we're not going to hang our heads. We feel like we're one of the better teams around. We've just got to keep working to prove it."

The 10th-ranked Broncbusters had plenty of chances to put Northern Oklahoma away early. Garden City (8-1-1, 4-1), had to first hold off a quick Mav attack. In the third minute, goalkeeper Cesar Aguilar made a leaping save on a head shot by Northern Oklahoma's Justin Cleland. The Busters went on the offensive from there. The only problem was Garden City didn't have the scoring bunch it had through nine games. Some of the trouble came from the Busters being without their two leading scorers, Fedarico Argreda and Steve Shaw. Agreda had to sit out two games after being ejected in the Busters' scoreless double overtime tie against Barton County in Great Bend Sept. 24, and Shaw is recovering from a separated shoulder he suffered Saturday against Johnson County.

At the 18:38 mark Monday, an Alexis Dominguez wide open shot from 15 yards hit the crossbar. The Busters had another chance, but a Daniel Martinez shot did the same as Dominguez' as it bounced off the crossbar.

"We haven't been working as hard as we should," GCCC sophomore forward Mario Ojeda said. "We kind of saw the success we'd had, and instead of working hard we kind of stopped a little bit. It's kind of been showing."

Ojeda, who scored two goals Saturday in the Broncbusters' 3-2 overtime loss to Johnson County, matched the total against Northern Oklahoma (8-2-2). His first goal came in the 58th minute to put Garden City up 1-0. Dominguez was credited with an assist on the goal. Ten minutes later, the Mavs answered when Mutsa Magadah scored on a pass from Jarrell Henry.

Instead of the Mavs goal forcing the Busters into their third straight overtime game, Ojeda scored with 7:39 left. Northern Oklahoma had no response as the Busters defense kept the Mavs from finding a final shot.

The Mavs finished with just fives shots while the Busters finished with 13. Northern Oklahoma goalkeeper Matt Finney finished with seven saves to Garden City's two from Aguilar.

"This is a team concept, and thank God players stepped up and we got the job done today," Ojeda said.

Garden City will be at home Saturday for a game against Jayhawk Conference foe Neosho County at Memorial Stadium. The game starts at 1 p.m.

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Garden City 2, Northern Oklahoma 1

NOC 0 1 -- 1

GCCC 0 2 -- 2

Scoring summary

Second half

GCCC -- Ojeda goal (Dominguez assist), 58th minute

NOC --Magahah goal (Henry assist), 70th minute

GCCC -- Ojeda goal, 84th minute

Shots -- NOC 5; GCCC 13. Corner kicks -- NOC 3; GCCC 2. Saves -- NOC, Finney (7 saves); GCCC, Aguilar (2 saves).