It was Senior Night on Tuesday night.
And, the Dodge City High School varsity soccer team went out with a bang.
The Demons beat the Great Bend Panthers 7-2 in a cold, rainy game that was clearly all Dodge, which improved to 11-2 on the season.
"What a tremendous result," Red Demons coach Virgil Hutchcraft said. "I'm a little disappointed we gave up those two goals. We should have had a clean sheet, but to win 7-2 is a lot better than what we did over there. We definitely came out with the right focus, right fire."
The Demons took advantage of any and all Panthers mistakes. The first goal was a free kick made by Larry Martinez. Then, another easy free kick by Jean-Damien Bouyer gave the Demons a 2-0 lead before the 15-minute mark.
Victor Millan set up for his penalty kick and scored his first goal with 10 minutes left in the first half, making it 3-0.
With only three minutes to go before the break, the Panthers got on the board for the first time as the Demons led 3-1 at the end of the first half.
"In the first half, I wasn't too happy with some of the things we were doing, but we talked about it and corrected it and played the right way in the second half," Hutchcraft said. "Hopefully we are ready for the rest of the season."
The halftime talk must have fueled the fire even more because the Demons came out hot.
Ivan Peralta scored early in the second half, followed by Millan's second goal of the night — both within the first 10 minutes of play.
Armando Hipolito then scored with 18 mintues left, and Millan scored his third goal of the night for a 7-1 edge.
It was looking as if the game was all theirs, but the Panthers wanted one last chance and scored the final goal of the game.
“It was an entire team effort. They played well all the way around," Hutchcraft said of his team. "We put a lot of subs in there, and they were able to keep the flow of the game going so I'm happy about that."
The Demons hope to carry over their focus and fire when they take on the Maize Eagles.
"We head to Maize on Thursday and they are undefeated," Hutchcraft said. "We have to be ready."
Zabcikville, TX —
