Lady Broncos Find a Way to Hold Off Lancers

BY SCOTT MORRISON

The Hastings College Lady Broncos found a way to brave the dreary elements and hold off the Mount Marty Lancers 3-1.

The Broncos (8-3-1) ended a two game losing streak to improve to 6-2 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference on Saturday at Lewis and Clack Soccer Complex.

Hastings was able to dominate possession of the ball as they held it inside the Lancer zone for all but a few moments of the drizzle soaked game.

Zoe Cranmer, a sophomore forward from England, tallied the first goal of the game after she broke in alone in the box and beat Lancer goalie April Dolezal.

They added another goal only moments later in the first half when defenseman Jesse Herse gave them a 2-0 advantage.

The Broncos were able to add their final goal when Allison Kotschwar broke into the Lancer box and made a move on a defender to create an open net.

Kotschwar dropped the ball into the uncontested net with ease to make the score 3-0.

Mount Marty (2-11, 0-8) would attempt to rebound from the three goal deficit as freshman forward Abby Hunhoff was able to knock home a rebound that deflected off the Broncos goal keep.

Sophomore Lauren Donlin did what she could to develop the play as she dribbled the ball down through the right side and blasted a shot on net.

Hunhoff would not be denied the goal as she slid in on net and knocked the ball in while falling to the muddy turf.

Hastings won the game in convincing fashion, but Coach Ted Flogaites was not impressed with his team’s performance.

“I thought we had a poor performance this afternoon,” Flogaites said. “We simply did not play up to our potential.”

Despite having a little trouble finishing their scoring opportunities, the Broncos did find positives through the amount of time that they were able to posses the ball.

The Broncos athletes were also successful in getting into position when they did not have the ball. This helped to create more opportunities on offense.
On the other side, the Lancers were able to take a couple of positives away from their overall performance.

“We played good soccer today. We were a little scared of Hastings at the beginning of the game, but we were able to stop them a couple times and that helped to give us confidence,” Lancer coach Dan Hendricks said.

“We were able to produce a couple of opportunities and we were able to capitalize on one of them,” Hendricks added.

Despite falling 3-1, Hendricks still felt like his team “had one of their best games of the season.”

The Broncos will host Nebraska Wesleyan University on Wednesday, October 17 at 5:30 p.m. in their next contest.

The Lancers will take to the road to match up against the University of Sioux Falls on Tuesday, October 16 at 2:00 p.m.