Menu
Tigers prevail in home finale
Fort Scott High's soccer team broke a four-game winless streak (three losses and one tie) when the Tigers defeated Columbus, 6-0, in Southeast Kansas League play at Ellis Park Thursday afternoon.
The Tigers are 4-8-1 overall with three of the victories coming over the Titans. Fort Scott has outscored Columbus by a combined 12-2 in those four games.
Fort Scott is 3-3-1 in the SEK. Columbus is 0-5-0 in the league and 1-10-0 overall with its only win of the season coming by a 3-1 score over Riverton on Sept. 26.
The Tigers did to Columbus what a few of their recent opponents had done to them, namely dominate possession. Fort Scott launched 25 shots, 18 in the first half alone, while Columbus managed to take only nine shots in the entire game.
"I think this was our best showing of the year," Fort Scott head coach David Gray said. "Six goals is the most we've had and this was Jake's first shutout of the year."
Jake Grant, one of the Tigers' three senior captains, needed to make only six saves thanks to his teammates' offensive domination and the defenders' ability to keep Columbus from organizing very many serious attacks.
"It was a strong game all the way around," Gray noted. "It was probably the best we've played. We moved well. We passed well. We capitalized on our shots this time,"
Before this game, the Tigers hadn't scored more than three goals in a game. The last time there had been such an offensive barrage was in a 7-0 win over Coffeyville on October 13 of last year.
Kenny Shaw started things off with his first varsity goal in the 10th minute on an assist from Jason Phillips. Kevin Gray then put in his sixth goal of the season, heading in a pass from Chris Brown in the 18th minute.
Stephen Buntain's corner kick led to an own goal against Columbus in the 31st minute that made it 3-0 in Fort Scott's favor.
Devin Talley scored his first varsity goal off a corner kick by Nick Russell in the 39th minute, boosting the margin to 4-0 at the half.
Shaw scored his second goal from a Gray assist in the 59th minute and Gray scored his second goal unassisted in the 69th minute.
Several seniors, including co-captains Gray, Grant and Zak Al-Shawish; Phillips, Russell, Shaw, Tally, Corey Chandra, Brady Johnson, Trent Pruitt, and Jordan Renfro played their final home games Thursday. Fort Scott's remaining three regular-season games will be on the road and it's likely that any playoff game will also be away from home.
Nick Wilson and Luke Geneva, who both joined the team late in the season, are also both seniors. David Gray started all of them in their final home game.
"We had four guys that hadn't played since rec league -- Shaw, Renfro, Talley and Chandra. The veterans we had were the core of the team -- Russell, Johnson, Pruitt and Phillips. They gave us a lot of strong play, leadership and knowledge.
"Of course, the captains; we looked to them for all kinds of leadership. They pretty much led us the whole time and it's their team. I really appreciated all of them being here."
Gray noted that, in a somewhat unusual circumstance, there were more seniors on the soccer team this year than on the football team.
The Tigers begin their season-ending road trip at Carl Junction, Mo. Tuesday. In the past, there have been times when the JV game was played first since the field there has lights. The first game will start at 4:30 p.m.
There was a JV game played Thursday but the score was not available at press time.