By CAYDEN SANDERS
Tiger Media Network
File image
The No. 7 Fort Hays State men’s soccer team completed the sweep of the GAC/MIAA’s Arkansas schools this weekend in Hays, defeating Harding 5-0 on Thursday and Oachita Baptist 3-0 on Saturday.
After scoring three first-half goals against Harding, Fort Hays State (9-0-2, 5-0) didn’t put the ball in the net as easily against OBU (1-7-2, 0-5), despite outshooting the opposing Tigers 25-2, including an 8-1 advantage in shots on goal.
“It was a poor start from us. We set high standards, and we did not play our best in this game,” sophomore forward Bastian Carlman said. “We should have played a lot better in this game.”
FHSU did score in the 16th minute, when Oliver Wright scored his third goal of the season off an assist from Joseph Street. However, it wasn’t until the 79th minute that Juan Linares scored FHSU’s second goal. Carlman scored once more for FHSU in the 82nd minute off an assist from Tadhg Walsh.
“There’s a bit of unlucky, we’ve had two off the line. We’ve had loads of chances. On another day, we could win this game 6-0, 7-0,” Carlman said. “We’re not thinking. It was sloppy, and we’ve had a lot of minutes, but we need to keep going. The sign of a good team is when you’re not playing well, you’re still winning. So we’ve won 3-0, which is a convincing scoreline in fütball. So that says a lot about us as a team, how good we can be if we play good.”
In the 20th minute, OBU lost Andrew Castellanos to a red card for taking away a Fort Hays opportunity right outside of the box. This forced OBU to play on the defensive for the remainder of the match, allowing FHSU to stay on the attack for the majority of the game – they were just unable to capitalize with more scores. However, for Carlman, scoring late in the second half came as a relief for him individually and for the team.
“For me, it was just a relief to get a score here again, and for the team. I mean, it was at the end of the match,” he said. “We should win at that point. It’s just nice for the team to be able to relax a little bit more.”
With the victory, Fort Hays claimed a three-point lead in the conference standings after five games. Rogers State follows behind with 12 points, while Northeastern State has 9 points. FHSU’s next opponent, Newman, has 8 points in the conference race.
The Tigers and Jets square off on Thursday before FHSU heads to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, to face Northeastern State on Saturday.
“We just have to stay humble. We’ve had a great start where everyone knows that we’ve beaten Rogers State and SNU, who have been at the top of the conference,” Wright said. “They’re going to be fearing us, so what we’ve got to do is keep dominating. We can’t take our foot off the pedal. One bad result can kill momentum. We have to keep rolling in the moment, and keep winning.”