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GCCC men's soccer team ready to take on rival Barton County
Published 10/13/2009 in Sports
By MIKE KESSINGER
mkessinger@gctelegram.com
It has been a soccer rivalry that found its true identity a year ago.
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Brad Nading/Telegram Garden City Community College's Andrew Sincock moves the ball upfield to a teammate Sunday against Coffeyville at Memorial Stadium.
Two Jayhawk Conference rivals from the western part of the state, ranked nationally, and chasing that ultimate goal -- reaching the national tournament. A year ago, it was Garden City Community College that, for the first time in school history, made it to nationals. And to do it, they had to get past Barton County. Now, as the two men's programs make a push for a strong finish to the regular season, the Broncbusters and Cougars meet Wednesday night at Memorial Stadium. It will be a game between the No. 8 and 10 ranked teams in the nation, which adds enough fire to the rivalry.
"We're excited," GCCC coach Stephen Gorton said. "We always get up for that game, they always get up for that game. It's just a fun game to see where things are at and a hard, well-fought game is what we're looking for."
Just to add a little more fire into game, both teams suffered a loss to Johnson County last week, meaning as far as Region 6 standings go for the tournament in two weeks, this game will have a significant impact on who gets the higher seed. With Johnson County's 2-0 win against Cowley College on Monday, the Cavaliers are guaranteed the top spot in the region. Despite the loss both teams had to Johnson County, Barton County coach Oliver Twelvetrees still believes his Cougars and Garden City (11-2, 7-1) hold the top spots in the Jayhawk Conference.
"I have a great deal of respect for coach Gorton and what he's done at Garden City," Twelvetrees said. "What they've done and what we've done has been great for the league. Johnson County is certainly a very good team and they beat us both, but I still think feel like (us and Garden City) are the best two teams in the conference."
Barton County's 2-1 loss to Johnson County snapped a 41-game unbeaten streak in conference play for the Cougars during the regular season. When GCCC and Barton County met last season in the regular season, the teams battled to a 1-1 tie in Great Bend. When they met in the Region 6 championship game in Topeka, the game again ended in a tie after two sudden death overtimes, but the Busters came away with the win, beating the Cougars in a shootout. The bitter taste from the loss, Twelvetrees says, still remains with the returning Barton County players.
"I think everyone is looking forward to this big of a game," Twelvetrees said. "Last year when (GCCC) beat us in the region final it was a devastating loss. I know our returning players want some revenge for that loss."
While the memory of that loss has stayed with Barton County (12-3, 7-1), the Busters haven't forgotten the two games from last year either.
"It's still a big game," GCCC sophomore forward Federico Agreda said. "At the beginning of the season we thought it would be a game knowing that if we would have won that game against Johnson County we would still have chances to win the conference. We're still going to play with everything because it's against our rivals. We still want to keep playing and getting better. We don't want to lose another game."
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