Soccer heads into playoffs with newfound resilience

Erick Echegaray, Opinions Editor

A certain resilience, a new epoch in the story. A week consisting of three back-to-back matches had the Manhattan High School soccer team entranced in a spree like it has not yet seen this year, an unbeaten streak that has proved its existence at and away from home. Not only did the once 0-4 Indians move forward without loss throughout the matches, they have now achieved a winning season going into the playoffs.

With victories against Highland Park, Topeka West and Topeka High, all which went 3-0, 9-1 and 3-0 respectively, the Indians moved onto their final regular season match against rival Junction City, a match that would decide if MHS would play at home again this season.

Manhattan managed to score the 1-0 before halftime and later would score 3 more against the Blue Jays’ one to come out victorious 4-1.

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“It’s nice. Winning this game, it was guaranteed to play another game here, so thankfully I have another game [at Bishop]. Hopefully we can bring in another regional championship,” senior defender Conall Root said.

With a 8-6-2 record to finish the season, the Indians look forward to the playoffs, forgetting the early struggles of the regular season and focusing on what happens on the field.

“It’s great to be at .500 but we can play a lot better,” head coach Frank Alonso said. “During playoff time we need to ratchet up and play better. That’s where we are at right now and the truth is we are better than that. We need to play with some intensity and some passion and above all they need to listen to the gameplay. We’ve been doing this a long time, we know how to be successful.”  

Manhattan’s first regional match opponent will be Wichita Northwest, a team which they played twice already this season and came winless from both games. In the chance that Manhattan wins and moves on, the next regional final will be played at Bishop Stadium.

“If we can make it to state, that would be nice, “ Root said, “but we’re three-time regional champions and we have to make it four.”