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Alyssa Peterson

Senior Aidan Knauth dribbles the ball between two defenders in the boys varsity soccer game.

Coming out of the first half, the Huskies were trailing 0-1 and spent much of the half on the defensive end. Senior Will Vancrum said he told his team they needed to quit playing soft if they wanted to win.

“Going into the second half it was pretty obvious what we were doing wrong, we played really soft,” Vancrum said. “At halftime the captains and coaches came together and gave a little speech to everybody and then we came out strong in the second half.”

Needing to play more aggressive, Vancrum would tie the game with 30 minutes left in the game, to put the score at 1-1. Vancrum said after having a couple of his shots saved he was relieved to have one go in.

“I was happy, I had two opportunities before the goal and they got saved so I was happy that it went in to kick off the scoring,” Vancrum said.

With ten minutes to go, the Jaguars would score a goal to give them a 2-1 lead. Less than two minutes later, they would add to their lead making the score 3-1, Blue Valley West. Head coach Brian Pollack said the team stayed dialed in the entire time.

“I feel like this team and I are pretty connected in terms of how dialed in they are,” Pollack said. “They didn’t put their head down, they looked forward and found solutions so you can’t ask for more than that.”

Trailing by two goals with seven minutes to go in the game, the Huskies chances looked bleak. That would be until junior Andrew Mitchell would continue his goal scoring streak and shorten the Jaguars lead with six minutes to go.

Now only needing a single goal to tie the game, the Huskies found themselves with momentum. And with three minutes left in regulation, Mitchell would score his second goal to tie the game at 3 goals apiece. Mitchell said despite being tired, the team needed to use the energy they had left to tie the game.

“I was focused on trying not to cramp mostly but we just needed to find that third goal with that little bit of energy left,” Mitchell said.

After two overtime periods, neither team would be able to score and it was ruled a draw. Vancrum said he was happy the team was able to prove they can compete with a state title contender.

“It’s good knowing we can compete against West because they are definitely our biggest competition going forward into state,” Vancrum said.

Adding to his goal scoring streak, Mitchell scored his 5th goal in two games and said he’s confident more is on the way.

“It’s going to keep coming,” Mitchell said.

With the draw, the team’s record moves to 2-1-1 on the season. The Huskies are back in action Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 7:00 p.m. against Topeka Seaman High School at the DAC.