No. 1 Warriors take care of business vs. Wolverines

RIVERTON - This week's new WyoPreps soccer rankings had a new No. 1 with the Worland Warriors rising to the top spot. The new ranking could have set up a potential letdown match against the Riverton Wolverines on Thursday. Instead, the Warriors took care of business and left Riverton High School with a 3-0 victory.

"I thought we played really well tonight. It was cold and windy and we didn't let that bother us. We worked on different patterns and ways to attack and it's always good to see when they apply what they learned in practice to the game," said WHS boys soccer coach Ron Overcast.

Sophomore Devin Mercado led the way for the Warriors (7-1) scoring two goals, while junior Rylan Mocko struck in the team's third goal on the evening.

The Warriors worked all week on adding new wrinkles to their offensive attack and Thursday night they took to those changes very well.

"We were really creative on the attack tonight. We didn't finish like we have been and could have had more goals had we done a little bit better, but overall I was really pleased with their effort," said Overcast.

Thursday's game could have had all the makings of a trap match for the Warriors; they were coming off their first loss, they are playing a team they beat 4-0 on March 15 and, of course, earning the No. 1 ranking could have led to overconfidence.

But none of that hurt Worland's play against Riverton, in fact, they seem to welcome the challenges that come with being the best team in the state.

"We've talked a lot about it and we know we have a bullseye on our chest and we're going to get every team's best effort. We have to embrace that and perform at a high level every day. We have to answer that call and we did that tonight [Thursday]. We're no longer coming in under the radar, so we have to keep working hard in practice and practice like we're the No. 1 team in the state. We have to have the confidence and desire to remain at No. 1," said Overcast.

Worland has the remainder of the week off but will start next week with a Monday 6 p.m. match against Powell at Powell High School then close out the week with a Thursday road trip to Cody to take on the Broncs at 6 p.m.

The Warriors will also be down a few players due to State FFA going on.

Two wins next week for Worland locks up the 3A Northwest division as well as securing themselves a No. 1-seed for the 3A State tournament in Jackson on May 17-19, allowing them to bypass the state qualifying match held here in Worland on May 11-12.

"We just have to take it day by day and drill by drill. Powell and Cody are going to come after us, they're going to be tough games and we have to answer the bell. We have to keep working, we played well as a team tonight [Thursday], we had each other's backs out there and played some really good team defense. We have to keep doing that and playing for each other and not as individuals," said Overcast.