By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
In a game of spurts, Hayden High's boys soccer team got the final and most important one Thusday at Hayden, scoring the final two goals to pull out a 3-2 win over Centennial League foe Topeka High and improve to 3-0 on the young 2023 season.
Hayden junior Preston Meitner (13), battling Topeka High's Vador Limon for a loose ball, scored the game-winning goal in the Wildcats' 3-2 win over the Trojans Thursday at Hayden. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"It was a good win,'' Hayden coach Klaus Kreutzer said. "It was ugly. We scored on a great goal and then we gave them two and to our credit, at least they stayed with it. It's always nice to beat a (Class) 6A school for us.
"We've got a lot of younger players and they're making the effort. We've had a couple of balls bounce the right way and I'll always take that. I've had enough where they've bounced the wrong way.''
Hayden junior James Kuta (16) had a goal and an assist in the Wildcats' 3-2 soccer win over Topeka High Thursday at Hayden. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden junior Cooper Grace (18), stretching to control the ball, scored the Wildcats' second goal in Thursday's 3-2 soccer win over Topeka High. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Hayden drew first blood at the 21:26 mark of the first half when junior James Kuta found the back of the net.
But Topeka High, which fell to 0-2, got two goals in a little over three minutes to take a 2-1 halftime advantage.
Sophomore Luis Garcia (19), battling Hayden senior Josh Wolf, scored both of Topeka High's goals in Thursday's 3-2 loss at Hayden. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
Trojan sophomore Luis Garcia scored both Topeka High goals, with 15:06 and 11:47 left in the first half, and the High lead held up for nearly 15 minutes into the second half before Hayden got the tying and game-winning goals within a span of 3:48.
Junior Cooper Grace tied the game with 25:25 left in the match and junior Preston Meitner broke the tie with 21:37 left to play.
Topeka High challenged on several occasions the rest of the match, but Hayden's defense was able to keep the Trojans out of the net to hold on for the victory.
"We just let it get away,'' Topeka High coach Derek Snook said. "They just kept putting pressure on us. Even on the first goal that they scored it was just a mistake by us and I thought it could have been better.
"And should we have put a couple more balls in the back of the net? Sure.The great equalizer is playing on grass when you practice and play on turf but that shouldn't prevent us from doing a little bit better going foward and inside the 18. We've got to get better.''
Kuta also was credited with an assist for Hayden while senior Victor Mesta picked up an assist for Topeka High.
Hayden will travel to Eudora next Tuesday while Topeka HIgh will host Kansas City-Sumner Academy next Wednesday.
HAYDEN 3, TOPEKA HIGH 0
Topeka High (0-2, 0-1) 2 0 -- 2
Hayden (3-0, 1-0) 1 2 -- 3
Topeka HIgh -- Goals; Garcia 2. Assist: Mesta. Hayden -- Goals: Kuta, Grace, Meitner. Assist: Kuta.
