High ends West's perfection

--- Greg Lahann/The Capital-Journal

Two goals by former Charger Mira Minner sends West to first defeat, 3-1.

By ANDREW SNYDER

The Capital-Journal

The Topeka High girls soccer team smelled blood Tuesday. Meanwhile, Topeka West needed some smelling salts.

The Trojans took the Chargers out of their offense and came away with a 3-1 victory to hand West its first loss of the season. After the Trojans took an early 1-0 lead, Mira Minner, a member of the Chargers' team last season, scored two second-half goals to secure High's win.

The seeds for the victory may have been planted three weeks ago when the Trojans' defense stymied the Chargers through two overtime periods before losing 1-0.

"We wanted to pressure their forwards and midfielders," High coach Joe Waldron said. "In the last game, we took them out of their offense and made them go to some other options. We took it further this game and took advantage of some of their turnovers."

Minner took advantage and then some. With West (12-1) regaining the momentum in the second half, Minner came open in the middle of the field and launched a shot over West goalkeeper Jenny Shepard. Minner added another goal in the final minute for the clincher.

High improved to 9-2 with the win.

"We just felt it here today," Minner, a sophomore, said. "(On the first goal), I just got a breakaway and shot it high."

Shepard replaced West's Tasha Henry in goal at halftime. Henry suffered a hip injury and joined ailing Alex Stacks on the sideline.

"They came out very confident," Chargers coach Tim Collins said of the Trojans. "We came out lackadaisical and maybe overconfident. They do a good job of taking you out of your game."

The Trojans' aggressiveness paid off seven minutes into the game when all-state junior Sarah Edwards zipped a perfect pass to Amanda Stamm right in front of the net for an easy goal.

The lead, as well as good defense spearheaded by High goalkeeper Hire Taylor and sweeper Darcy Griffin, kept the Chargers out of rhythm and frustrated them into several penalties.

West snapped out of the funk with 8:33 left in the game. Junior Christy Moorman crossed to Amber Hearell for a header into the left corner to cut the deficit to one. After several more Charger attempts went high or wide, Hearell appeared to have headed in another goal. But Taylor tipped the ball up and cradled it just as it was about to float across the line for the save.

"They had some really good chances tonight and we were fortunate at times," Waldron said of West. "(Collins) has his team playing really, really well. I think they can compete for a state title."

Topeka High 1 2 --- 3Topeka West 0 1 - -- 1 Topeka High (9-2) --- Goals: Stamm, Minner 2. Assists: Edwards.

Topeka West (12-1) --- Goal: Hearell.

JV score: West 5, High 2.

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