T-Bird Times

Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Melissa Knox Sophomore Danny Post fights for the ball against a Dodge City player.

After all the close calls, the men's T-Bird soccer team pulled off a victory on Tuesday, defeating Independence, 5-3.

Darryl Odom was the lead scorer for the T-Birds, making two goals. Robby Gonzalez, Danny Post and Ahmed
Al-Maliky each scored one goal.

Head Coach Dane Straight was pleased with how well the game went and is seeing some real improvements.

"I thought they played fairly well. They got a goal on us that shouldn't have gotten in the first half and we started getting frustrated with each other, but we eventually started to pick it up and get better," Straight said.

There were no red cards given out during the game, but Independence's David Stewart and Anthony Tucker each received a yellow card, and Al-Maliky also received one too.

The Pirates struck first in scoring as James Gilreath made the first goal within 17:37 of the first half. Post would answer later in the first half with a goal and that would end the scoring in the first half.

"We had a lot of fun with what we did and we needed that headed into the weekend. We just all needed to get on the same page, have fun, get the job done, and I felt like we did that," Straight said.

Straight also commented on the growing strength the men are showing by starting to play together as team and not being concerned about who got the stats. It was about whoever was open, get them the ball, and make the plays.

The second half opened up with a goal from Independence's Jeff Schaper. That would end scoring by the Pirates till the end as Al-Maliky and Gonzalez would put up to goals to bring the score to 3-2, Cloud, but Odom would soon finish the game with two more goals, with Schaper only able to answer one back.

Gonzalez felt the team did much better moving the ball around this game.

"We played real good. We moved the ball around a lot, kept passing, which we have been struggling with until now, and I thought we just did well as team," Gonzalez said.

The team headed to Colorado and started off on a sour note as they fell to Western Wyoming in their first game.

That wouldn't keep the men's spirits down as they went on to defeat Air Force Prep Academy and Colorado Mountain College in back-to-back wins.

The men's team will play again on Monday, October 8, against Northern Oklahoma.

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