By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
There's no doubt that Hayden's girls soccer team has been up against a brutal schedule over its first five games of the 2024 season, with three of those teams advancing to the state quarterfinals a year ago, including seven-time Class 4A-1A state champ Bishop Miege.
Hayden senior Elaina Wolff (2) and McPherson senior Riggs Kuhn battle for control of the ball in Monday's 1-0 Bullpup win over the Wildcats. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But Hayden coach Klaus Kreutzer, who team suffered a tough 1-0 loss to McPherson Monday at Hayden, also knows his Wildcats need to be able to beat teams like that if they're going to make another late-season run after finishing third in 4A-1A last spring.
"That's what I said to them, 'If you want to be the best you have to beat the best,' '' Kreutzer said.
After dropping an 8-1 decision to Miege in its previous game, Kreutzer saw improvement from his Wildcats on Monday, but McPherson, which lost to Hayden in the quarterfinals last season, scored the game's only goal on a shot from junior Ellie Bower just 6:44 into the match and the Bullpups made that goal hold up the rest of the way.
"We made less mistakes today than we did on Thursday so we're headed in the right direction, but it's time to make stuff happen,'' Kreutzer said.
"The second half I thought we had a little more intensity than the first half when we started pretty slow. We had opportunities and just didn't finish, and at the end of the day, you have to put it in the goal.''
Continuing its season-long trend, Hayden will face another tough test on Friday, going on the road for a Centennial League contest at Washburn, which finished third in 6A in 2023.
McPHERSON 1, HAYDEN 0
McPherson (4-2-1) 1 0 -- 1
Hayden (2-2-1) 0 0 -- 0
McPherson -- Goal: Ellie Bower. Shutout: Alyssa Harper.
