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Busters can't convert in 1-0 loss to Beavers
Published 10/7/2012 in Sports By Adam Holt
By ADAM HOLTaholt@gctelegram.com
If you happened to catch five minutes of Garden City's game against Pratt on Saturday, you might have thought the Lady Broncbusters soccer team was winning. After all, GCCC was attacking more, and its defense wasn't giving much to PCC.
But it doesn't matter how a game looks.
Pratt converted one of its few good chances, while Garden City couldn't do the same, with the Busters taking a 1-0 loss at Memorial Stadium on a chilly, drizzly day to stay winless.
"I think it was pretty apparent that we were the better team on the field today," GCCC head coach Ki Thornberry said. "Not to take anything away from Pratt, they've won some games, they were able to finish, so they deserve the win because they earned it."
After facing No. 1 Hutchinson and No. 6 Butler in consecutive games and losing by a combined score of 14-0, Garden City (0-13, 0-9 KJCCC) got a team more its speed in Pratt (4-10, 4-5). The Busters responded by looking more complete on both sides of the ball than they have in a couple of weeks.
Although Garden City was playing better than Pratt, the Busters looked almost uncomfortable doing so. GCCC hadn't had much of an offensive presence in its last two games, and while it had a good amount of possession in PCC's half, the Busters didn't seem to know what to do with it.
In a phrase, Garden City zigged when it needed to zag, and vice-versa. When the Busters had time to dribble, they rushed passes, and when they were under pressure with the ball, they held on to it too long.
"Bad decisions," Thornberry said. "Like I said, I think that's a lot to do with confidence. Instead of trying to take someone one-on-one, the people who are capable of it, they passed the ball off. Again, we were taking shots at the 35 and 40. That's not going to — any keeper worth anything is going to be able to stop those goals. Like I said, bad decisions because we panic when we get the ball at our feet."
The bad decisions got more frequent after Garden City fell behind.
The Beavers drew a foul just outside the left corner of the Busters' 18-yard box shortly into the second half. Lauren Randall took the free kick, putting it on goal and over the head of GCCC goalkeeper Karassa Prochaska for a 1-0 PCC lead.
Garden City had a great chance to tie the game in the 74th minute. Nicole Dunn took the ball up the right win and fired a cross into the box. The Busters got a foot on it, but it went off the left post, and a rebound came to Kat Hamric, whose shot on a bouncing ball went well over the net from about seven yards out.
After, Garden City wasn't just hurrying its passes, but its shots as well.
"Every tick of the clock, it seemed almost panicky," Thornberry said. "And we didn't play at our level we needed to play at to finish the game."
Garden City next plays at Coffeyville (7-6, 4-4) at 3 p.m. Monday. Thornberry said the Busters will need to do a better job of finishing if they want to earn their first win.
"I just told them it's about confidence, and knowing when you have the ball at your feet what you're capable of doing and performing," she said.
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