Broncbusters dominate but come up empty vs. Otero

By Mike Pilosof

Garden City, KS-From a fundamental standpoint, the Garden City men's soccer team looked every bit as good as sixth-ranked Trinidad State on Tuesday. Three days later, they thoroughly outplayed Otero at home. But in 180 minutes of action, the Broncbusters still have yet to score a goal.

Despite being outshot 7-5 and spending most of the match retreating, Otero scored twice and handed Garden City their second straight defeat 2-0 on Friday at Broncbuster Stadium.

"We just have to finish our scoring opportunities," First-year Head Coach Scott Westbrook said. "Our guys should have scored twice. But we didn't."

The game was there for the taking in the first half. Joel Sanchez found himself wide open in front of the box. But his shot sailed over Otero goalie Ventura Dominguez's head and out of bounds. Sebastian Arrigada and Remi Emeriau also had good looks, but ultimately came up empty.

"We should have scored," Westbrook said. "But these guys are learning. We've got some talent, and once they put things together, they will be pretty good. We had seven shots on goal, which is decent. I'd still like to see us in the 10 to-15 range."

While the Broncbusters had a ton of near misses, Otero (1-0) took advantage of their opportunities.

Salvador Jimenez, who did not start the match, eluded a couple of Broncbuster defenders before sneaking a ball past goalie Luis Mancinas in the 31^st minute for a 1-0 lead. Interestingly enough, Mancinas was only in goal because of injuries to Hemir Lopez and Kender Acevedo.

"Hemir had to miss the game with a concussion," Westbrook said. "Then Kender sprained his ankle in pregame warmups. At that point it was the next man up mentality. In reality, those two goals should never have happened."

The match stayed 1-0 until the 35^th minute of the second half when Arturo Chairez's unassisted goal put the game out of reach.

"We just have to practice and be more consistent," freshman Matias Lopez said. "It's very frustrating that we haven't scored in two matches. But we will get there."

Lopez did not start, but he played very well off of the bench.

"Matias allowed us to change some things up with our lineup," said Westbrook, who has used the same starters in his first two matches. "He played really well today."

Next up: Garden City (0-2) at Northeastern, Monday, Sept. 4 at 3 p.m.