Story by Wyatt Ebersole
Butler Soccer is once again heading to the Region VI Final Four after a 5-1 victory over the Dodge City Conquistadors this past Saturday at BG Products Veterans Sports Complex in the first round of the Region VI Playoffs.
The win improves the Grizzlies record to 17-2-1 this season and Coach Adam Hunter remains undefeated in Region VI First Round Playoff matchups since his takeover of the Butler Soccer program in 2007. The Grizzlies also complete back-to-back undefeated seasons at home in conference play with Saturday's win.
The game started off on the wrong foot for the Grizzlies when Dodge City found the opening goal of the match just .49 seconds in when Alexandra Sibrikova slid a ball past Kyrah Klumpp in what was a bit of a shocking goal that seemed to maybe turn the momentum towards the Conquistadors.
Butler, however, had other plans. The Grizzlies came down the field and just .57 seconds later, Yossi Villagrana found an equalizing goal on a nice feed from Kenzee Godwin and the match was back level in the second minute
"We couldn't have had a better response," said head coach Adam Hunter, "because if we hadn't scored so quickly, the tension in the game could've immediately gotten pretty tight. We didn't have to feel like we were chasing the game at any point."
15 minutes passed by and not much happened until the Grizzlies found a go-ahead goal in the 17th minute off the foot of Godwin on a feed from Villagrana and it was 2-1 Grizzlies.
Dodge City didn't give up, however. Minutes later the Conqs were able to generate a great looking shot that seemed destined for the back of the net, but Klumpp made a sensational stop pushing the ball off the crossbar and was able to corral the ball and keep the net clean.
"I thought the play of the game was Kyrah pushing the ball over the crossbar to prevent the game from being 2-2," mentioned Hunter.
The rest of the first half was rather quiet and the Grizzlies went into the locker room with a 2-1 advantage.
The second half silence was broken in the 53rd minute when Brooke Sullivan found the back of the net to make it 3-1 Grizzlies and it was at this point that the Grizzlies really started to settle in and take control in what had been a rather surprisingly close match up this point.
Butler's Joy Ngibuini put the icing on the cake in the match with two goals in under a minute handing the Grizzlies a 5-1 decision and sending them into the Region VI Final Four at Stryker Sports Complex.
The Grizzlies will play their Region Semi-Final match on Thursday, November 4th at 4PM against either Johnson County or Hutchinson.
NOTES: Head Coach Adam Hunter is now 22-4-1 against Dodge City in his career…Coach Hunter has never lost a Region VI First Round match in his Grizzly career…Butler finishes the year 8-2-1 at home…Butler has not lost a home match to a team in the KJCCC in 600 days and has not lost a match to conference team at all in 393 days…Kyrah Klumpp has 80 saves on the season, the most by any Grizzly since Elena Garcia in 2017…Only one number 1 seed has ever lost in the first round of the Region VI Soccer Playoffs, #1 seed Cowley lost to #8 seed Butler in the Spring 2021 season.
