Special to the Leader & Times
Dodge City hosted the Sunflower Showdown on October 17th and 18th that brought both Liberal and Dodge some new schools they don’t normally get to play in Kapaun Mt Carmel and Olathe North.
Liberal faced Kapaun on Friday to kick off the event. Kapaun got on the scoreboard quickly at the 4:46 mark with a free kick that found the back of the net from 35 yards out that was placed perfectly at the top of the goal to make the score 1-0.
Kapaun found the back of the net again at 25 minute mark and the game went to half 2-0.
Coming out of half Redskins tried to make some adjustments to mount some attacks, but a couple of plays on the defensive side of the field allowed Kapaun to score 2 more goals and make the score 4-0. Liberal did find the back of the next with 4:43 seconds left in the game when Yadier Medina Casas found Ariel Gaytan and he found the back of the net with a header.
Saturday’s game against Olathe North was slow going in the first half and went to half tied at 0. Liberal scored quickly to start the second half at the 2:18 mark when Yadier Medina Casas found Ariel Gaytan off a free kick to make the score 1-0. Olathe North came right on the attack and at the 9:00 minute mark tied the game 1-1. Liberals Johnny Young made a nice run down the right side and took the shot from just inside the box. The keeper was able to get his hands on it but the rebound went straight to Ariel Gaytan that put it in to take back the lead 2-1 at the 28:22 mark in the second half. Olathe North responded quickly with a similar play as one of their players was able to put a rebound back in after Liberal goalie Diego Flores made a save. Regular time finished tied at 2-2 and headed into over time. Josh Garcia was able to find Ariel Gaytan midway through the overtime to score the winning goal and Liberal win 3-2. Ariel Gaytan ended the game with a hat trick.
Liberal is now 10-3 (4-2 WAC) with two conference games left. At Great Bend today and Senior Night Thursday.
