Three games in five days: a challenge, maybe the toughest of the season. The Manhattan High soccer team looks to bounce back after last Tuesday’s 2-1 loss against Shawnee Heights heading into this week filled with matches. They will not only be looking to rebound after the Shawnee Heights loss, but also after the Saint Thomas Aquinas 2-0 loss in the final of the Titan Classic tournament that took place on Sept. 12.

“We’ve been working hard, it takes team effort to beat any team,” senior defender Jake Bussman said.

He along the rest of the team will be playing on Tuesday against Seaman High, on Thursday against Washburn Rural and finally will finish off the week traveling to Great Bend to play against Great Bend High. The Indians have also been practicing all week, preparing for their busy schedule.

“We’ve been focused on defending more and defending set pieces because that’s how most of the goals we’ve been giving up have been scored, so we’ve been practicing that,” senior forward Kirkland Lambert said.

He scored the consolation goal for the Indians in their loss to Shawnee Heights.

“We’ve analyzed both of our losses pretty deeply and I think we can bounce back well,” senior midfielder Ben Turnley said.

MHS, now 3-2, looks ahead to a week that could decide how the rest of the season will go for them.

“[This] week gets really tough, we have games on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday all against solid opponents, obviously Seaman on Tuesday and Washburn on Thursday, and hopefully we can bring that intensity back because we can either go 3-0 this week or 0-3 you know,” Lambert said.

Manhattan begins their series of matches today, Sept. 22 against Seaman when the ball is kicked off at 6:15 p.m. in Bishop Stadium.