By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Hayden's soccer team reached the .500 mark on the season with a 2-0 shutout victory over rival Seaman Thursday at Hayden.
Even though Hayden and Seaman are now in separate leagues, Wildcat coach Klaus Kreutzer said that the Seaman game is still important to his team.
"I think they're always a little more motivated when they play a couple or three teams in town here and I thought they played well,'' Kreutzer said. "Keeping them off the scoreboard was big.''
Hayden senior Chris Hayes (4), defended by Seaman junior Jacob Anderson, scored a goal in the Wildcats' 2-0 non-league win over the Vikings Thursday. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden senior Jake Muller (3), defending Seaman sophomore Logan Townsend, was credited with assists on both Wildcat goals in Thursday's 2-0 win. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden, which improved to 5-5-1, got the only goal it would need from freshman Lane Neuman at the 25:28 mark of the opening half off an assist from senior Jake Muller.
The Wildcats' 1-0 lead held up through halftime before Hayden added an insurance goal just 3:22 into the second half on a shot from senior Chris Hayes off Muller's second assist of the night.
Seaman, 2-6-2, had scoring opportunities in the both halves, but couldn't get the ball past Hayden junior Zachary Cook and sophomore Chase Blaser, who shared goalkeeping duties for the Wildcats.
"I've got two guys who are fairly inexperienced but they complement each other well,'' Kreutzer said.
The Vikings' best scoring opportunity came on a second-half penalty kick attempt by freshman Brody Anderson, but Blaser made the clean save to keep Seaman, which was coming off a 2-1 win over Kansas City-Turner on Tuesday, off the scoreboard.
"We had some things figured out last game,'' Seaman coach Tim Nussbaum said. "I was pretty happy with our performance versus Turner and I thought we'd go on to bigger and better things today and just kind of reverted back to not scoring. We kind of did a lot of ball-watching and it just wasn't our day.''
Hayden will travel to Manhattan for a Centennial League game next Tuesday while Seaman will play a United Kansas Conference at Lansing.
HAYDEN 2, SEAMAN 0
Seaman (2-6-2) 0 0 -- 0
Hayden (5-5-1) 1 1 -- 2
Hayden -- Goals: Lane Neuman, Chris Hayes. Assists: Jake Muller 2. Shutout: Zachary Cook, Chase Blaser.
