'Stangs hit wall on the pitch
Mullen knocked from undefeated ranks 3-0 by Grandview; Mustangs will be back at it on Friday with a toughie against Arapahoe and a 3rd game in 3 days, vs. Smoky Hill on Saturday.
It happens.
Mullen had one of those matches, one of those days … and one of those losses.
The Mustangs were knocked from the undefeated ranks as well as top of the Centennial League on Thursday at home by Grandview, which took a 3-0 victory on a quite windy afternoon into early evening. The Class 4A Mustangs dipped to 4-1 as the 5A Wolves jumped to 5-1 to grab control of the loop.
Head coach Matthew Guglielmo has seen it before if his team hasn’t. Sometimes you just run into a better team that had it going.
“It does happen,” he said. “It’s weird like that. Teams say ‘We didn’t play well.’ Well, why didn’t you play well? I would like to give credit to Grandview in every phase of the game. I thought (the Wolves) were faster, fitter, quicker and more aggressive … our captain just said maybe they showed a little more heart.
“But it has to be some accountability to us. There’s no way you could say we were sharp today. They’d be the first ones to tell you.”
Junior Eli Kerschen had difficulty admitting Grandview played better, but said “I think we made three critical mistakes (the Wolves) scored on. We were more dangerous; they were just kicking it long. Losing sucks, but we’ll definitely come back from this and keep our heads up.”
After a scoreless first half, Grandview broke through early down the stretch with a left-angle shot that just went past the fingertips of keeper Andrew McGrath.
The Wolves put it away on two opportunistic scores – the first came after a shot that hit a goal post and was drilled right back in, and the third basically uncontested on a defensive miscommunication.
The scores stung.
“Really,” Guglielmo said, “it would be hard to say they earned the goals; they were flukey … and they were due to our mistakes. We made the mistakes and they punished us for it.”
Mullen, with 19 goals entering the match, had only been scored on twice before, both against Cherry Creek – a penalty kick and a 50-yard rifle shot that would have looked good on the collegiate level.
However, the Mustangs realize there’s no time to lament – they will host Arapahoe on Friday, 4:30 p.m., a match postponed from Tuesday’s rain and lightning, and welcome Smoky Hill on Saturday at noon, the final games before seeding for a regular-season-ending loop tournament.
“We put some guys in (late), gave them a few minutes and told them to forget about it, it’s over,” Guglielmo said.
Said Kerschen: “We don’t have any time to sit and pout about it, I guess. We can’t play around and have to come back (Friday) and win.”
GRANDVIEW 3, MULLEN 0
Grandview 0 3 -- 3
Mullen 0 0 -- 0
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