Boys soccer defeats Shawnee Mission North 4-0 in rain shortened game
The team improves to 2-0 on the season following the victory
August 31, 2016
The boys soccer team defeated Shawnee Mission North 4-0 on Tuesday, Aug. 30 in a game that was cut short just prior to halftime due to inclement weather.
For the first 25 minutes of the game, neither team was able to break through and take the lead. Then, in the 26th minute, junior Brent Stevenson was there for a putback goal to give the team a 1-0 lead.
Senior Adam Grube noticed the slow start to the game, but noticed that more communication between him and his teammates would make the difference.
“[The] first few minutes weren’t good,” Grube said. “After a little bit of yelling back and forth, we definitely picked it up, especially in those last five minutes that we were able to play.”
This increase of communication was most noticeable from senior Spencer Butterfield who used his position on the team to act as a leader on the field.
“As a senior and as an outside back, I can see the whole field,” Butterfield said. “I just want to communicate and be the voice of the team.”
After the goal, the Jaguars created more opportunities, even with rain starting to fall with 11 minutes left in the first half and lightning on the horizon.
After a few substitutions, three more goals came from junior Drake Brizendine, McCabe and sophomore Jake Ashford in quick succession.
Once the team noticed the weather, Butterfield and the rest of the team rallied around what they expected to be a shortened game.
“Everyone on the bench was seeing lightning and we figured they’d call the game pretty soon,” Butterfield said. “We started to move the ball around pretty well … then the floodgates opened in those last moments [of the first half] and we scored four goals.”
Eventually, with 2:22 left in the first half,the referee called the game into a weather delay that would eventually turn into a 4-0 win for the Jaguars.
As the team gathered their belongings and ran to find cover from the rain and lightning, Grube was nervous about what the result of the game would be.
“We were up 4-0 so we were pretty terrified that the referee was going to call it,” Grube said. “So when he called it with two minutes left we were like, ‘Oh my god we’re going to have to replay the game.’ But they ended up giving us the win.”
Even with the result, Butterfield still sees room for improvement as the team progresses this season.
“We definitely have to improve the speed of play,” Butterfield said. “We’ll be playing teams a lot better than Shawnee Mission North because we’re in the EKL now. So we just have to play faster and play more crisp.”
The team’s next game is at Shawnee Heights on Thursday, Sept. 1.
