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By CAYDEN SANDERS
Tiger Media Network
The Fort Hays State men’s soccer team welcomed the #24 Northeastern State RiverHawks to Hays Thursday night. As two of the top teams in the conference, both FHSU and NSU are looking to be part of the GAC/MIAA conference tournament on November 10th and 12th. Fort Hays used two goals in the first half to lead them to a 2-0 victory over the RiverHawks.
“It was a very good win tonight,” FHSU Head Coach Gerry Cleary said. “They are a good opponent and we had our chances tonight and they had the wind in the second half that put pressure on us.”
Fort Hays centered the match second in the conference with 17 points while the RiverHawks had 13. The race for the conference championship is heating up as teams second through fifth were within five points of each other prior to Thursday’s game.
FHSU helped their case by finding the back of the net first with a cross into the box from Inigo Jimenez to Blake Arndt in the 22nd minute of the match.
In the 37th minute, the Tigers took advantage of a breakaway as Pablo Orozco found Elias Ovelar Semeniuk in the box for a one-on-one with keeper Ian Milla.
“Playing with Elias [Olevar Semeniuk] has been fantastic, we knew that once we got him, he would be good. He just needed time in the system, but we knew he would be a really really good player once it came together,” Arndt said. “Playing with him up top has been a joy for me, it takes some of the pressure off of me.”
While the Tigers scored two goals in the first half, at halftime, the message was simple for the Fort Hays State.
“In the locker room, the message was 2-0 was the worst lead to have, and so we knew the first 10-15 minutes they would come out and fight and we just had to weather the storm,” Arndt said.
Fort Hays and Northeastern also had to battle against Mother Nature as the match was 70 degrees with a light breeze to start the match. But at halftime, the wind and cold air started rushing through the area.
“We had a game plan going into the second half and after walking out and feeling the change of the weather I had to pull the team in for a quick huddle and made a little change to the plan of attack,” Cleary said.
Fort Hays State ended the night with 19 shots, five of them on goal and a save on the defensive end. Goalkeeper Ben Dixon had three saves.
Fort Hays is one step closer to clinching a spot in the GAC/MIAA conference tournament in November as they sit at 20 points after the win.
“Coming into the season we were doing good then hit a bumpy patch, but this team has banded around each other to keep fighting and clawing,” Arndt said. “It’s a great feeling to know a team is willing to fight, and I think we are peaking at the right time.”
Fort Hays moves to 7-6-2 on the season with a conference record of 6-2-2. The Tigers have a week off before senior night against conference-leading #16 Southern Nazarene at 6:00 p.m. next Thursday at FHSU Soccer Stadium.