The Garden City Telegram
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Despite record, Busters are underdogs
Published 11/8/2008 in Sports : GCCC
By MIKE KESSINGER
mkessinger@gctelegram.com
It's not so much a nervous feeling anymore for Garden City Community College men's soccer coach Stephen Gorton. It's more an anxiousness for his team to take the field tonight for one final home game this season.
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Brad Nading/Telegram Garden City Community CollegeÕs Daniel Martinez, left, moves the ball past NeoshoÕs Kody Spurlin toward the goal during an October game at Memorial Stadium.
Of course, if Gorton was a little nervous no one could blame him. This game has quite a lot more at stake than a regular season game. In fact, when the Broncbusters take on Jefferson (Mo.) College at 7 p.m., Garden City will be playing in its biggest game of the program's four-year existence. Win tonight and the Broncbusters head for Chandler, Ariz. to the national championships Nov. 19-23.
"That's a program with tons of history," Gorton said of Jefferson, the 2006 NJCAA national champions. "They have a legendary coach (Stephen Peck), who's been coach of the year twice, coach of the region six times. They're No. 3 in the country for a reason."
There's nothing more Gorton and his team would like to prove than just why the Broncbusters (17-1-1) are No. 5. Especially against a team that had to play an opening round game to the Great Plains District Championship on Friday just to get into tonight's game.
"I guess we're the underdogs," GCCC midfielder Mariano Leo said.
For a program that has never been this far into the playoffs, the players and coach stop short of calling it a dream season so far. Instead they would rather wait and call it that if they win tonight and qualify for the national tournament. It's been the goal for a team that caught the eye of many after the first game of the year, a Garden City 2-0 win against No. 4 San Jacinto (Texas). From there, the Busters rode the emotion of their first game to a 1-1 tie against Jayhawk Conference nemesis Barton County on Sept. 24 in Great Bend. In their final meeting last Sunday, the Busters clipped No. 2 Barton in a penalty kick shootout, 4-3, at Hummer Sports Complex in Topeka. It was Garden City's first Region VI title and first win against Barton.
"(Jefferson) is going to have to deal with a very hungry Garden City team," Gorton said.
The Busters will be without team captain forward Mario Ojeda who was given a red card against Barton and is required to sit out the following game. Even without him, though, the Busters say they're confident, and hope to take the program to a new level.
"We have the type of players that know how to step it up when we need it the most," forward Fedarico Agreda said.
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