by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC sports information
Kansas City Kansas Community College’s No. 6 ranked women’s soccer team is still unbeaten – but with a tie.
Twice battling from behind, the Blue Devils fought through two 10-minute overtimes in a 2-2 deadlock with Hutchinson Saturday.
The tie left the Blue Devils 11-0-1 heading into a regular season-ending game at Coffeyville (7-3) Saturday at 4 p.m. A win would give KCKCC the outright Jayhawk Conference championship.
The Blue Devils trailed Hutchinson 2-1 with less than four minutes remaining when sophomore Madison Broeker scored the biggest goal of her young career, a kick that just beat Blue Dragon goalkeeper Kambrian Colborn inside the right post.
Officially, Corrine Hughes had the assist but it came on a series of seven passes – Katharina Oelschlaeger, Jaidyn Yingling, Katrina Sargent, Grace Runyon and Paige Liston before Kayley Pedersen fed Hughes, who set best friend Broeker up for the tying goal with 3:48 left.
“I told Maddy before the game this is the kind of game Maddy scores a goal and sure enough she put it away,” KCKCC coach Shawn Uhlenhake said.
It was the second multiple-pass goal for the Blue Devils. Hutch had taken a 1-0 lead in the first 64 seconds of the second half and the Blue Devils needed a goal from Hughes to get even with 34:16 left. Hughes started the series with a pass to Melissa Siegel and on to Pedersen before Broeker set Hughes up for the tying kick in front of the goal.
“At times we have glimpses of real good combinations but it’s really hard to do,” Uhlenhake said.
Hutchinson (7-3-3) had gone ahead on Marah Franke’s 15-yard blast from the left sideline into the upper corner of the net with just 12:20 left.
The Blue Devils almost won it in the closing seconds of the first overtime. Broeker slipped inside in front of the Hutch goal only to have her attempts for a game-winner blocked in a scrum and then another Blue Devil attempt was blocked by a leaping Colborn.
“At the beginning of the week playing three of the best teams in conference I was told we would be 2-0-1 I would have been happy,” Uhlenhake said. “With finals week and COVID testing, we had a lot on our plate. It was a great game and a fun game, Hutch is really good, the best overall team we’ve played. It was a great test for our team and they came through with a tie. It could have gone either way.”
The Blue Devils got a post-game bonus. The coach of U.S. National Women’s team, Viatko Andonovski, watched the game and talked briefly with the team after the game.
