High-octane offense powers No. 2 Warriors to win over Powell

High-octane offense powers

No. 2 Warriors to win over Powell

By ALEX KUHN

Sports Editor

WORLAND - When given the option of receiving bad news or good news first, take the bad news first that way the good news softens or eliminates the bad news.

The bad news for the Worland Warrior soccer team was they allowed their first goals of the season as the Panthers found the back of the net twice. The good news for the Warriors, they too put the ball between the goal post and did so 11 times in their 11-2 victory over the Powell Panthers Tuesday night at Worland High School.

"We finished much better tonight. We talked about it and worked on it Monday. We wanted them to shoot it with a purpose and to make it. Instead of shooting it and hoping it goes in. The problem in our game against Cody was we were trying to kick the ball through the net, instead of into the net. Placement was part of what we worked on Monday. Keeping it on the ground is important because it's hard for keepers to get down there," said WHS boys soccer coach Ron Overcast.

Sophomore Wyatt Wyman had a hat trick for the Warriors, scoring three goals in the victory. Senior Mason Werbelow scored two goals; freshman Rudy Sanford had two; senior Brayan Castro, junior Rylan Mocko and sophomores Devon Mercado and Dillon Wolf all had one goal each.

The Warriors offensive explosion was due in part to the team's ability to finish but their passing also played a significant role in scoring 11 goals. Unselfish play put the Powell defense on skates and reacting to whatever the Worland offense was doing.

"We were doing well, I thought there were times where our center-mids were dribbling too much and weren't focusing on our two-touch passing game. I thought we struggled with that initially but part way through the first half we started moving the ball, switching the point of attack, getting our head up and seeing those passing lanes to get the ball behind their defense. They [Powell] play a high line and we have some speed and we were able to do that several times," said Overcast.

Winning by a nine-goal margin is the equivalent to a 40-point victory in basketball, and while impressive, Overcast saw some things on the field he'd like his team to clean up.

"I didn't like the defensive effort and urgency we played with. We scored a couple of goals and weren't getting back like we need to. We weren't playing great team defense and that we have to fix, all 11 guys have to play defense.

"We talked about that at halftime and in the second half I thought we did a much better job of getting back and creating problems for them. They set up a lot of little triangles and we've practiced how to defend against those and that was something we weren't getting done. We'll work on that this week and get the defensive assignments straightened out," said Overcast.

The win pushes Worland's record to 2-0 in the 3A Northwest division and a step closer to clinching the division and a No. 1-seed at the 3A State tournament in Jackson on May 17-19.

Now the Warriors just need to stick to their motto of being better today than they were yesterday.

"Overall it was a good game but like I told them this win was no more important than our wins over Riverton, Cody and Lander. All it meant was that we were 1-0 today [Tuesday] and we have to work to be 1-0 tomorrow. That's the way we approach everything, it's one day at a time," said Overcast

The Warriors have the remainder of the week off and won't be back in action until the Southwest Invitational tournament in Green River on April 6.

"We'll get ready to go to Green River and I told them after the game, we're not going to Green River to just play in the tournament, we're going to go down there with the purpose of winning the tournament.

"We're going to continue to work on finishing. We'll also work on our set pieces, it's my fault that we haven't worked on them. We need to defend set pieces better and there's a lot of stuff to add. Hopefully, we can get more creative on the attack to get more overlapping runs and maybe getting some guys to rotate through positions. But overall we're in a good spot, we have to stay mentally tough and come together. We need everyone to show up and be 100 percent committed to being better," said Overcast.