The Garden City Telegram

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GCCC scores winning goal with 1.7 seconds left in OT

Published 9/14/2009 in Sports

By MIKE KESSINGER

mkessinger@gctelegram.com

The ball bounced out into the open field off a free kick by Laramie County (Wyo.) Community College and Whitney Brown and Ulises Caba took off down the Memorial Stadium field with possession of the ball.

As the Garden City forward and midfielder led the charge, the only person in front of them was Laramie goalkeeper Brandon Carrick. Time was running out and the Broncbusters had just one chance to prevent the game from going into a second overtime. As Carrick came out to defend, Caba passed to Browne who was losing control of the ball, but as Carrick dove to stop the possession, Browne booted a hard ground drive into the net. All that was left on the game clock was 1.7 seconds and the No. 4-ranked Busters had won 3-2 in the sudden death overtime.

"I thought we had less time than we had," Browne said describing the final possession. "When we scored I saw we had like 1.7 seconds on the clock. It was crazy, we ran really fast for that one."

Mobbed by his teammates at the middle of the field, Browne was the Busters savior on Sunday. The goal was his second in the game as the Busters had to come from behind, trailing 2-0 at intermission.

"We were going to see what we were made of," GCCC coach Stephen Gorton said. "We haven't been scored on first. We haven't been down at a halftime. I don't think we've been down 2-0 in the last two years."

The hard-fought, physical win, concluded the Busters two-day home tournament with a perfect mark as GCCC (5-0) knocked off North Idaho on Saturday night 4-1. In the Saturday win, sophomore forward Federico Agreda had a hat trick for GCCC, scoring three goals. Barton County, who played Laramie on Saturday, then North Idaho on Sunday also finished with a perfect mark, winning 2-1 and 4-0.

"For them to come back in the second half and tie it and score that exciting goal, that was just icing on the cake," Gorton said. "Laramie County played so well. I don't want to say we played bad, because they played really well."

For one half, Laramie simply dominated the Busters. Whenever the Busters started to moved downfield, Laramie stopped the possession, many times around midfield, as GCCC couldn't get into a cohesive offensive flow. Laramie's two goals came from Guilherme Andrade, the second coming off a nice over-the-head lob from Casey Allen that Andrade booted past goalkeeper Andres Benavides with 21:02 left in the first half.

With Laramie continuing to pick up momentum, Gorton was left trying to find a rotation that would work. Most all of the first half, Browne, Caba and midfielder Tareq Al-Lugman were left on the bench for GCCC.

"It wasn't our rotation," Gorton said of leaving the three out most of the half. "It was lopsided today because we put somebody in that we normally put in and they wouldn't play to their potential. We were just trying to find different things to solve problems. And I don't know if we ever found it the right way."

The Busters found something that worked in the second half. But it still took more than 20 minutes to find it as Browne's first goal came with 21:34 left in the second half. GCCC had a chance again four minutes later but Caba's kick from 20 yards out sailed high of the goal. It wasn't until the 1:27 mark that the Busters were able to tie it. With a corner kick from the left side of the goal, the ball bounced off the Laramie defense and right into GCCC sophomore Alexis Dominguez' possession, the midfielder set himself up and launched a hard grounder past the defense and into the net.

"In the first half, (Laramie) came out really hard," Browne said. "We are ranked nationally No. 4 and they were ready to upset us. At the same time we could have done better, but we started out really slow. I'm just glad we won."

The Busters will be back at home Wednesday for a game against Cloud County at 5 p.m. The women's Lady Busters soccer game will play Cloud County in a 3 p.m. contest.

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GCCC 3, Laramie County 2 (OT)

Laramie 2 0 0 -- 2

GCCC 0 2 1 -- 3

First half

Laramie — Andrade goal (unassisted)

Laramie — Andrade goal (Tanner assist), 21:02

Second half

GCCC — Browne goal (unassisted) 21:34

GCCC — Dominguez goal (unassisted), 1:27

Overtime

GCCC — Browne goal (Caba assist), 1.7 seconds.

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