Demons Hot Start Continues, Down Liberal

DODGE CITY, Kan. – Angel Lopez scored on both sides of halftime and Aron Martinez tallied his eighth goal in five games as Dodge City handled Liberal 5-1 at Memorial Stadium.

Both teams came into the contest with some momentum after podium finishes at the respective tournaments over the weekend. Liberal was in Wichita at the Titan Classic where they finished third after dominant wins over Wichita-South and Wichita Homeschool. Their lone loss was a tight 3-2 defeat at the hands of Wichita-North.

Dodge City, in pursuit of some tougher competition, packed their bags for Kansas City where they rolled in the Saints Classic. After dominating Manhattan 7-0, they fought past St. Thomas Aquinas 3-1 to make it to the final. There, they finished with a bang and were crowned champions after a 6-1 win over Lee’s Summit.

Tuesday’s game didn’t start well for the hosts as Seth Michel had a moment of magic for Liberal on a tight-angle free kick which fluttered into the top corner to give Liberal a 1-0 lead inside of five minutes. 

The Demons weren’t fazed by the early deficit though as they equalized in the 11th minute on an Aron Martinez goal, his eighth strike on the young season. Yair Vasquez gave Dodge the lead two minutes later on a strange goal where the Redskin defense and goalkeeper froze after Martinez appeared to be fouled while attacking but advantage was played and Vasquez put it in from distance and it counted to make it 2-1.

Things opened up for the Demons after that moment with Angel Lopez scoring in the 21st minute and Rodrigo De La Cruz in the 34th to make it a comfortable 4-1 lead for the Demons going in to halftime. 

The defense continued their strong play for Dodge City in the second half as they pitched a second half shutout with Lopez adding another in the 56th minute to get to the final score of 5-1. The back four and two goalkeepers for the Demons didn’t allow any good scoring chances for Liberal outside of the free kick goal early and they really limited the impact of Liberal’s star striker Suain Moncayo who had two hat-tricks in his first two games of the season.

The Demons are now 5-0 and will hope to keep their perfect start of the season going on Thursday as they take on Hays on the road. Dodge City is back at home on September 19 as they welcome Garden City to Memorial Stadium at 6:30. The Buffs-Demons matchup will be broadcast live on Z98 with pregame coverage starting at 6:15.