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Retribution will be on the minds of head coach Tim Romanello and the members of the Dodge City Community College Conquistadors men's soccer team Wednesday as they open the season at home against rival Garden City.
The Conqs, who lost to the Broncbusters twice last season, including a 17-0 lashing to close out their 2008 campaign, will look to improve their 2-11-1 mark of a year ago.
"You always want to be confident," Romanello said. "But I think there's a little anxiety because everybody knows what happened last year with the poor record. And we were kind of on the wrong side of the scoreboard by pretty large margins. What we're trying to do is establish a little bit more consistency."
DCCC will find out just how consistent it will be early on as it opens against Garden, the No. 4-ranked team in the country this preseason, and then hits the road to take on Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa, a team that also received preseason top-15 votes.
The Conqs then will host Barton County Sept. 9 in the third game of the season. Barton is currently the No. 8-ranked team in the National Junior College Athletic Association.
"The negative side is we very well could go into all three games and just get handled and end up going 0-3," Romanello said. "The positive side, we are going to learn a lot about ourselves."
Romanello said Garden City, which finished 18-3-2 in 2008, will again present numerous problems for Dodge with its inside-out offense. He said the Broncbusters will look to control the ball a lot in the middle of the field and then try to get it out wide.
Though Garden will be a tough out, Romanello said second-year Dodge City-natives Manuel Hipolito and Raul De La Torre will be two keys to Dodge opening 2009 with a win.
"One of the things we're working on is controlling the ball, slowing down the game a little so we can spread it out and attack" said De La Torre, a 6-foot, 170-pound Dodge City High product.
De La Torre said this year's team is much faster, and communicates a lot more effectively on both ends of the field than last season's squad.
Dodge-native Dalton Burkhard will once again man the goal for the Conqs in 2009 and he too sees the team's improvement.
"Our skill level is a lot better than last year," Burkhard said. "Our determination is a lot higher because I know we want to win. We don't want to get embarrassed like we did last year."
Burkhard added that Wednesday's game against Garden will be a perfect test to show just how improved the Conqs will be this season.
"If we can hang with them, we can pretty much hang with any team just because they're so strong," Burkhard said. "Overall, if we pull out a victory it's going to be a good time."
The DCCC women's soccer team will also host Garden Wednesday in its season opener. The women are scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. with the men following at 8:30 p.m.
Retribution will be on the minds of head coach Tim Romanello and the members of the Dodge City Community College Conquistadors men's soccer team Wednesday as they open the season at home against rival Garden City.
The Conqs, who lost to the Broncbusters twice last season, including a 17-0 lashing to close out their 2008 campaign, will look to improve their 2-11-1 mark of a year ago.
"You always want to be confident," Romanello said. "But I think there's a little anxiety because everybody knows what happened last year with the poor record. And we were kind of on the wrong side of the scoreboard by pretty large margins. What we're trying to do is establish a little bit more consistency."
DCCC will find out just how consistent it will be early on as it opens against Garden, the No. 4-ranked team in the country this preseason, and then hits the road to take on Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa, a team that also received preseason top-15 votes.
The Conqs then will host Barton County Sept. 9 in the third game of the season. Barton is currently the No. 8-ranked team in the National Junior College Athletic Association.
"The negative side is we very well could go into all three games and just get handled and end up going 0-3," Romanello said. "The positive side, we are going to learn a lot about ourselves."
Romanello said Garden City, which finished 18-3-2 in 2008, will again present numerous problems for Dodge with its inside-out offense. He said the Broncbusters will look to control the ball a lot in the middle of the field and then try to get it out wide.
Though Garden will be a tough out, Romanello said second-year Dodge City-natives Manuel Hipolito and Raul De La Torre will be two keys to Dodge opening 2009 with a win.
"One of the things we're working on is controlling the ball, slowing down the game a little so we can spread it out and attack" said De La Torre, a 6-foot, 170-pound Dodge City High product.
De La Torre said this year's team is much faster, and communicates a lot more effectively on both ends of the field than last season's squad.
Dodge-native Dalton Burkhard will once again man the goal for the Conqs in 2009 and he too sees the team's improvement.
"Our skill level is a lot better than last year," Burkhard said. "Our determination is a lot higher because I know we want to win. We don't want to get embarrassed like we did last year."
Burkhard added that Wednesday's game against Garden will be a perfect test to show just how improved the Conqs will be this season.
"If we can hang with them, we can pretty much hang with any team just because they're so strong," Burkhard said. "Overall, if we pull out a victory it's going to be a good time."
The DCCC women's soccer team will also host Garden Wednesday in its season opener. The women are scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. with the men following at 8:30 p.m.
