by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC
With non-conference play over, Kansas City Kansas Community College returns to the Jayhawk Conference men’s soccer war Wednesday with a crucial home game with Neosho County.
The Blue Devils (4-4-1), who are just one of two teams to defeat the No. 13 ranked Panthers (10-2) this season, a 2-1 decision in Chanute, are locked in a tight battle for a playoff spot as they enter the second round of Jayhawk Conference play.
Kickoff is 7:30 p.m. followed by a women’s game at 5 p.m.
Johnson County (4-0-1) leads the Jayhawk followed by Cowley College (4-1-1), Neosho (4-2), KCKCC (3-2), Allen County (1-5) and Coffeyville (0-6).
The Blue Devils dropped a 4-1 decision to St. Louis Community College (9-3) in their final non-conference game of the season Sunday, a game in which KCKCC head coach Ruben Rodriguez went deep into his bench.
“We wanted to give much-needed playing time to as many players as possible in order to give them the experience they’ll need for next year. Because of the closeness of our games, we haven’t been able to do that much this season,” said Rodriguez, who used 27 players in the contest.
KCKCC’s lone goal was scored by freshman Cheslyn Ashby on an assist from sophomore Leonardo Notarnicola 31 minutes into the first half.
St. Louis had taken a 2-0 lead earlier, scoring the two goals in a span of just four minutes.
The Archers then put the game out of reach with two goals early in the second half.
“We played the first team the last 20 minutes and played well,” Rodriguez said. “Unfortunately by then goalkeeper errors had put us behind the eight ball.”
