CONCORDIA, Kan. – After allowing a goal in the 14th minute and struggling to find any rhythm in the opening 45 minutes of play, the Cloud County Community College women's soccer team would come out firing and score two second-half goals to down Hutchinson Community College by a final score of 2-1 at the Cloud County Soccer Field on Wednesday, September 25th.

The win allows Cloud County to move to 8-2 overall and finish the first half of Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference play with an unblemished 6-0 record. Hutchinson is now 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the KJCCC following the defeat.

In the first half, CCCC would look out of sorts both offensively and defensively as the T-Birds would be forced to face seven shots from the Blue Dragons along with three corner kick opportunities while playing a large chunk of the half in their own half of the field. With things scoreless in the 14th minute, Hutchinson would use a foul in open field to play the ball on the ensuing kick down the near side of the field to the goal line where Naomi Waithira would go to the far upper corner of the net to curl a shot in to give HCC a 1-0 lead.

Play would become physical for the final 31 minutes of the first half neither team would give an inch defensively while challenging every opportunity to gain possession leading to a halftime deficit of 1-0 for the T-Birds.

A completely different second half would transpire as the T-Birds came out with a more aggressive style of play while letting loose with shots and putting pressure on the Blue Dragon defense. With Hutchinson forced to fall back and try to preserve their one goal lead, Cloud County would nearly strike with a shot from Franciele Cupertino hitting off the crossbar before being sent away to keep things a 1-0 HCC lead. The Blue Dragons would not be as fortunate in the 69th minute as a ball would be played from 40 yards out into the 18-yard box where an open Fatima Leme would be waiting and strike with a shot past a charging keeper to knot things up at 1-1 and give CCCC new life.

Just six minutes later, it would Cupertino on the receiving end of a pass into the box as Bruna Pereira would chip a pass over a defender to give Cupertino a one-on-one situation with the Blue Dragon goalkeeper as the opportunity would lead to a goal and give Cloud County their first lead of the game. The goal would mark just the third goal that Hutchinson had given up all year and the first time all season that the Blue Dragons had allowed more than one goal in a game to end a seven-plus match shutout streak by HCC. Cloud County would continue to put pressure on Hutchinson while maintaining their lead, ensuring that the Blue Dragons would be unable to find an equalizer to claim their eighth straight victory.

Leading all players in the match offensively would be Cupertino as the sophomore would record one goal and add one assist on five shots. Cloud County would manage to outshoot Hutchinson 12-9 in the match after being limited to just three shots in the first half and would also make the most with their shots by attempting eight shots on goal. Thaynara Soares would pick up the win between the pipes, playing all 90 minutes and turning away three shots on the afternoon to preserve the one goal victory.

What's Next?

Cloud County continues their stretch of three home matches in the span of two weeks with a home match against Hesston College at 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 28th. The match will be played at Harold M. Clark Stadium as part of the annual Concordia Fall Fest celebration.