October 16, 2009

Cowley soccer survives scare from Independence

Trailing winless Independence Community College 3-1 early in the second half of Thursday’s soccer game in Independence, the Cowley College men’s soccer team rallied to score four unanswered goals and win 5-3.

Although it was not pretty, Cowley head coach Roberto Dos Santos was happy to leave town with a win.

“Independence came out hungry wanting a win at home, the main part of the game is mental and that is where we turned it around,” Dos Santos said. “We did not change anything when we fell behind, we just kept reinforcing things and reminding them to play the basics.”

Playing in less than stellar filed conditions, the Tigers scored first as Keegan Cornelius netted his third goal in the last four games with 22:16 left in the first half. However, Independence got a goal from Michael Ysusi less than three minutes later to tie the game at 1-1, and then took a 2-1 lead thanks to Alex Guevara’s goal with 3:42 left before halftime.

Guevera would score again just 1:34 into the second half as the Pirates appeared on the verge of the upset. The three goals by Independence equaled the number of goals the team had scored in its first 14 contests.

Not wanting to be the first team to lose to Independence this season, Cowley stormed back. Sophomore Joao Bacchi started the comeback by scoring with 33:01 left in the game. Nathan Modesto then tied the game at 3-3 by scoring one minute later. Freshman Lucas Coelho and Ivenns Martinez would add goals midway through the second half to cap the victory.

“The way we played the second half is the way we need to play for 90 minutes,” Dos Santos said.

This marks the second time in the last three games that Cowley has had five players score in a victory.

“This shows we were working together as a team, moving all over the field and finding the open people,” Dos Santos said.

With the win, the Tigers are now 5-6-1 overall and 3-4-1 in the Jayhawk Conference. Independence is now 0-15 overall and 0-9 in conference play.

Cowley will be back in action Saturday when they play host to Crowder College at 3 p.m.  The Roughriders are 6-5-1 overall. A victory on Saturday would even the Tigers’ record on the season, which would be no small feat considering the team did not pick up its first win until its seventh game.