Lady Busters claim first win
By MIKE KESSINGER
mkessinger@gctelegram.com

Once the Garden City Community College women's soccer team took its first lead of the season in the opening half of its match with Cloud County on Thursday, all they had to do was hold on to it.

And hold on was exactly what they did to come away with a 2-1 win.

"The big thing from that game was to get the victory, and that's what we got," GCCC coach Jeff Huffman said. "They're going to have a long weekend to celebrate the victory."

With Labor Day on Monday, Huffman will give his teams a three-day break from practice.

Tied at one, Miriam Galvan scored the Lady Broncbusters go-ahead goal with 14:16 left before halftime. From there, all that mattered for GCCC was whether the defense could hold on.

Keeping the Thunderbirds from allowing the ball close to goalkeeper Britney Carter's area, the Busters (1-1) had enough trouble penetrating the Cloud County goal. It wasn't so much they weren't moving the ball their way, but GCCC was called for seven offsides penalties.

Cloud County started getting the ball around the goal late in the game, but it was a stiff Buster defense that prevented a late goal. After keeping a Cloud County direct kick out of the goal with under a minute to go, the defense made its biggest play of the early season in the final 10 seconds.

As the time continued to roll, and the clock moved under 10 seconds, Thunderbird sophomore Kari Munsch attempted a corner kick that no teammate could get a clear shot on. The ball bounced off the turf and Carter grabbed it, and held on to it before throwing it downfield in the final seconds.

"I'm glad we got the victory," Huffman said. "I was kind of concerned there at the end, because they were pounding our goal in the last two minutes of the game."

Cloud County's Erin Coulter scored the Thunderbirds' only goal at the 32:04 mark of the first half. The shot gave them a 1-0 lead. Yuliana Varela scored the Busters initial goal with 22:30 left off a rebound of a Galvan shot that bounced off the right side bar right to Varela.