In a hard-fought league battle, Manhattan High girls\u2019 soccer fell 3-1 at home to rival Washburn Rural on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey came out and battled,\u201d head coach Mike Sanchez said. \u201cI think that\u2019s kind of what we do. We\u2019re going to go out there and work hard. I\u2019m proud of them. They play hard, so I can\u2019t get frustrated. They\u2019re working hard and getting after it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Indians (2-2-1) entered the match riding the momentum of a 1-0 road win over Olathe North in their last outing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBattle-tested,\u201d Sanchez said of the team\u2019s early identity. \u201cWe play good teams, and that\u2019s what we want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washburn Rural (4-3), the reigning 6A state champions, came in off an 8-0 win over Junction City. Despite already surpassing last season\u2019s loss total as they went 19-2 en route to the state title, the Junior Blues proved to be the tough league test the Centennial League is accustomed to.<\/p>\n
The first half was a battle between the two sides, and Manhattan nearly struck first midway through before an outstretched save by Rural\u2019s keeper kept the match scoreless.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some chances in the first half that we definitely have to put away,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cThere are always going to be those little opportunities that we have to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
By halftime, the shot count favored Rural 8-7 while each team recorded three saves.<\/p>\n
Chances were limited early in the second half as the physical battle continued, but Rural broke through at the 27:45 mark to take a 1-0 lead. Manhattan continued to push, but Rural added another with 10 minutes remaining, then converted a free kick a minute later to extend the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just had a little lapse for three minutes there,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cGave up two at that time, so that\u2019s tough. But they definitely responded. They didn\u2019t put their heads down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manhattan broke up the shutout with a goal from sophomore Savanna Heitmann at 5:42, assisted by junior Adalynn Sawyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey fought the whole time,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cEven when we went down 3-0, they came back and found a way to get one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up next, Manhattan returns home Saturday to host Hays at 3:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a hard-fought league battle, Manhattan High girls\u2019 soccer fell 3-1 at home to rival Washburn Rural on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[8918,75,84,83,8919,9,24,8920,8917,8921,63,11585],"class_list":{"0":"post-190445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-manhattan","10":"tag-manhattan-headlines","11":"tag-manhattan-news","12":"tag-national-football-league","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nfl-seasons","16":"tag-nfl-teams","17":"tag-nfl-teams-seasons","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-seasons-in-american-football"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}