Liberal, Kansas – Seward County made its debut for the 2024 season last Sunday, once again stepping onto its home field for a tough matchup against Kansas City, Kansas, where the Saints kept up strong with the Blue Devils for the entire 90:00 minutes and had a chance to get on the scoreboard late in the final minute, but they couldn’t capitalize, closing their KJCCC opener with a 0-0 score.
SCCC and KCK engaged in a constant battle for the first ten minutes as both fought for the chance to get the first shot of the game, which was eventually taken by Javier Ruchelli Alvarez. The shot was on target but a little too close to the opposing goalie, who saved the ball and kept the Saints scoreless with 17:00 left in the half. With ten minutes to go, neither side had scored when Seward County found some momentum on its side and put up a series of shot attempts, led by Leonardo Leitao and Matheus Ambrozio, who both found open space but failed to score, leaving the two Jayhawk rivals heading into the break with a 0-0 tie.
After the break, the two teams continued their physical battle as KCK now moved down the field where they were able to get some shots of their own but were stopped by reigning KJCCC Goalkeeper of the Week Bruno Mestres. Time continued to tick down and with it the chances for the Saints to capitalize as Alexander Stevens-Lee executed a perfect dime up field throw to up the tempo for SCCC where the Saints put the Blue Devils defenders under fire as the trio of Leitao, Chad Haynes and Leonardo Anez all took a shot attempt to get Seward County on the scoreboard but all landed just wide. A glimmer of hope appeared in the final minute of the game when Ruchelli Alvarez took the lead and fought his way through his opponents as he found enough space to take one last shot attempt, but as the horn sounded, it was a little too high, ending the game in a 0-0 tie between the Saints and the Blue Devils.
Seward County upped its offensive game with 13 total shot attempts for the Saints, led by 4 shots from Leitao and 3 from Ruchelli Alvarez, 2 of which were on goal. Mestres was once again a human wall defending the goal, making 6 saves in all 90:00 minutes of play and a perfect save percentage.
SCCC is currently 0-1-1 heading into the 2024 season and 0-0-1 in conference play. The Saints will now look ahead to their next game of the year when they host Lamar on Sunday, September 1st.st Kickoff is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at Redskin Field.
