Red Demons soccer wins 7-0
By: Shelton Burch
Courtesy of Dodge City Globe
The Dodge City Red Demons won their fifth straight game to open the season, beating the Liberal High Redskins 7-0 Tuesday night.
“It’s always nice to score, especially getting so many people to score,” Red Demons head coach Saul Hernandez said. “It wasn’t just one or two guys, it was spread out and that keeps us on our toes and it keeps everyone guessing who’s the next one that can score.”
Five different Red Demons scored Tuesday night.
Senior Joshua Don Juan opened th
e scoring less than 12 minutes in. While attacking the net with just under 29 minutes left in the first half, Liberal’s goalkeeper came out of the net but tripped Don Juan. The nearby official blew the whistle and awarded Don J uan a penalty kick. The goalkeeper stopped Don Juan’s initial shot, but Don Juan was able to collect his own rebound and score.
“He knows if he doesn’t go after rebounds I’ll get on him,” Hernandez said. “There was a couple of them, one that bounced off the post that he didn’t get on the rebound and I got on him about it.”
It was his ninth goal of the season, but he was far from done. Don Juan scored again less than three minutes later, attacking from the left side of the net and chipping the ball over the goalkeeper’s hands.
His 10 goals this season rank him No. 2 on the
team only behind fellow-senior Mario Martinez who has 14. Martinez also scored two goals Tuesday night.
“It’s always nice to have great goal-scorers like that,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said the combination of Martinez and Don Juan also helps each, in addition to helping the team.
“They play off each other, they make space for each other, it’s a chemistry thing,” Hernandez said. “They’ve been playing together so long that they know each other’s movements, and it’s nice to have people that can finish the ball like that.”
Tuesday’s home-win was the first game the team had played since winning the Blue Bracket of the Titan Classic tournament Saturday. In that tournament, Red Demons beat Maize 10-0, then Wichita North 4-1 and ended the tournament beating Bishop Carroll 3-0. It was the second straight year the Red Demons won the event.
That tournament helped the Red Demons become more flexible with their style of play, Hernandez said, because the styles of soccer played in the West are different from those the team encountered in Wichita.
“It shows us that we can play with physical teams,” Hernandez said. “In Wichita, there was a lot of physical teams. We played through it and we came out victorious against those teams.”
With conference-play now open, the Dodge City heads to Hays to take on Hays High School Thursday night before returning home to play Garden City Sept. 19.
