Defense excels as Blue Devils blank Allen County, 2-0

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Kansas City Kansas Community College got in front early and stayed there in a 2-0 men’s soccer blanking of Allen County at Iola Saturday.

The win evened KCKCC’s record at 2-2 heading into a Jayhawk Conference doubleheader at Coffeyville Wednesday. The women play at 5 p.m.; the men at 7 p.m.

The Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead just 1:45 into the contest, sophomore forward Hiago Gaspar scoring on an assist from freshman defender Kenar Huntington.

An unassisted goal by sophomore Reed Axthelm of Riverton, Wyoming, in the 25th minute made it 2-0 and the defense took it from there.

“Our defense really played well, keeping the pressure off our goalkeeper,” KCKCC coach Ruben Rodriguez said.

Freshman goalkeeper Fabian Keiblinger was credited with just three saves as a quartet of freshmen Stylianos Papadimitriou, Ignacio Sarasol and Kenar Huntington and sophomore Gustavo Palmieri repeatedly kept the Red Devils from penetrating deep into KCKCC scoring areas.