No. 2 Warriors control Cody in 1-0 victory

WORLAND - A 1-0 victory may not look like a dominating win, but the Worland Warriors soccer team did just that Friday night at Worland High School.

Matching up against 3A's defending state champions and 3A Northwest division foe the Cody Broncs, the Warriors controlled most the match and had plenty of shots on goal but, to use a basketball term, the shots were not falling.

Fortunately for the Warriors, with less than two minutes remaining in the match, junior Rylan Mocko struck in the match-deciding goal.

"After the game what I told them was it's about believing in one another and believing in yourself and believing in your teammates; it's been a big theme for us this weekend. And you saw that today [Friday], that's why our defense was so good. We had guys flying all over and keeping them [Cody] pinned. We've talked about our culture a lot with our blue-collar work ethic and our family atmosphere. That's big for me because this is a young team and to see them to pull together like they did," said WHS boys soccer coach Ron Overcast.

Controlling the match like they did but not having the scoreboard properly reflect that was frustrating for the Warriors, especially in the second half when they had quality shots on goal that just missed or were denied by the Cody keeper.

To keep the frustration at bay Overcast and his staff kept reminding their team to play in the moment and not let a missed shot, bad pass or a call made by the official affect their game.

"We talk a lot about staying in the moment and controlling what you can control. If you miss a shot you can't fix that, all you can do is stay in the moment and compete. We talked about the frustration because I saw it in the first couple of games and in practice. That frustration isn't beneficial to the team. You could see they were getting frustrated because they kept missing but we kept reminding them to stay in the now," said Overcast.

To the Warriors credit it worked because possession after possession with minutes falling off the clock, they kept fighting until Mocko knocked in the match's only goal.

"It will be something we will continue to talk about and at halftime, they were frustrated with some things but we told there's nothing they could do about that. All you can do is control the moment they were in right now and they did a great job of that today," said Overcast.

The Warriors will have a quick turnaround for their next match, Tuesday they host the Powell Panthers at 5 p.m. in a 3A Northwest division matchup.

Having only one practice before the match, it will be business as usual for the Warriors.

"We're going to go back to work on Monday, we'll work hard and try to improve. We want to get better on Monday, then on Tuesday we play Powell, we'll play hard and see what happens," said Overcast.