by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
Spurred on by a large and enthusiastic crowd, Kansas City Kansas Community College stayed unbeaten in men’s soccer Monday with a heart-stopping 1-0 win over Cloud County.
The win in the Jayhawk Conference opener boosted the Blue Devils’ record to 2-0 heading into a home contest with Maple Woods Thursday at 4 p.m.
The Blue Devils finally broke through in the scoreless deadlock in the 76th minute when freshman midfielder Thiago Elias outfought a Cloud defender near the sidelines 35 yards out. With a quick turn, he launched a pass into the penalty area to sophomore forward Steven Sosa, who drilled a perfectly weighted pass past an outstretched Thunderbirds’ goalkeeper for the game’s only score.
Freshman goalkeeper Darryl Baptiste anchored the Blue Devil defense, turning back 15 shots for his first career shutout while Cloud’s defense turned away all but one of KCKCC’s 12 shots.
“Not an easy win,” said KCKCC assistant coach Burke Slusher. “In fact, for much of the 90 minutes the game was a back-and-forth battle of possessions with both teams attacking again and again only to be turned away by solid defenses or good goalkeeping. Even with a 1-0 lead, fans were kept on the edge of their seats.”
Alan Hoskins is the sports information director at KCKCC.
