S-C tops Warrensburg after losing the night before

Twenty-four hours after dropping a 3-0 heartbreaker to Warrensburg that all but put the Tigers out of the West Central Conference title hunt, Smith-Cotton put together an inspiring performance in the regular season finale Tuesday at Susie Ditzfeld Memorial Field.

Senior Alex Lang scored two goals and garnered an assist, goalkeeper Charlie Wheeler and a shaken-up back line shut out Warrensburg’s potent offensive attack and the hometown Tigers (14-7, 8-2 WCC) outshot Warrensburg 28-7 en route to a 4-0 win to secure second place in the conference on senior night.

“We possessed like this last night but we just didn’t finish,” Smith-Cotton coach Ethan Weller said. “But tonight, they came to our field. Their field’s smaller and it makes it easier to mark, and we struggled to get open in the final third. You put them on this field, they had trouble marking on this space and it left us more gaps and we capitalized with scoring opportunities.”

The defense, featuring a different rotation, also rose to the occasion to back up a dominant performance from Wheeler. Ryan Paul, normally the stopper, took over the sweeper position from Austin Anderson for the first time all year and Trevor Leary assumed the role of stopper. Both thrived in the new scheme with crisp clears and physical shut-down defense, and along with senior defender Billy Grose and Dakota Shepard, turned away scoring opportunities and set up their offense that set the tone early.

“We figured this game, we can’t win the conference so we might as well work on something and try a new lineup,” Weller said. “Ryan just played beautifully at sweeper and Leary played probably the best game he’s played all year in a spot he’s never played before. It was just great defensive effort and to come out and get a shutout against a pretty decent team is great.”

After 80 scoreless minutes the night before, a weight was lifted off Smith-Cotton’s shoulders nine minutes into the contest. After dominating the possession off the whistle, Leary weaved through defenders near midfield and found Lang streaking up the left side five yards outside the box. Lang capitalized on the well-placed through-ball and, with his left foot, struck a laser to the back top right corner for the game’s opening goal.

“Yeah, that was a big goal for us,” Lang said. “We just kept the intensity going and we had to keep scoring goals because we didn’t want to give (the lead) back up.”

The senior forward capitalized again in the 25th minute, trapping a pass from Tommy Lor in stride and winning the one-on-one battle with Warrensburg keeper Israel Baeza. Lang deposited the ball inside the left post with no room to spare and with just enough speed to give Smith-Cotton a 2-0 lead.

Two minutes later, Leary jockeyed for position inside Warrensburg’s box and his deflected shot found the right foot of junior Ricky Bain for a goal just inside the near left post.

Warrensburg had trouble answering and garnered only two shots in the opening half, one coming off Shayne Luehrs’ foot late in the waning minutes. The forward received a long ball cleared by one of his defenders, but his point-blank effort sailed high as Smith-Cotton led 3-0 at the half.

Smith-Cotton continued to dominate possession with speed and crisp passes, and after 33 scoreless minutes to open up the second half, Lang’s cross from the right corner found a streaking Jose Castillo open in front of the net for the final goal. Luehrs found space three times in the closing minutes in an effort to get his team off the schnide, but each time his bid was denied by Wheeler.

“Our team really pulled together tonight after losing last night,” Wheeler. “We wanted that win against Warrensburg on senior night and our new-look defense stepped up and it was just a great collective win.”