GCHS soccer advances in 6A playoffs

Garden City, KS-Joaquin Padilla was patiently waiting for his team to put everything together.

Boy did they pick the right time to do so.

Alonso Vera scored two, second-half goals as Garden City blanked Wichita Northwest 3-0 Tuesday night in the first round of the 6A playoffs at Buffalo Stadium. With the win, the Buffaloes advanced to play Topeka Washburn Rural on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

“It was definitely our best game of the season by far,” Padilla said. “Everything was crisp and sharp.”

After playing to scoreless tie over the first 40 minutes, Garden City (11-6) finally broke into the scoring column in the 65th minute when Jesus Garcia setup Salvador Bustos for the first goal of the match.

“We had chances to score in the first half, but we just didn’t convert,” Padilla said.

The second half was a completely different story.

60 seconds after Bustos scored, Vera made it 2-0, beating three defenders to the box before striking the ball past keeper Jose Gonzalez. A minute later, Vera did it again, this time with a rocket from 15 yards out that hit the corner of the net.

“I didn’t play that well in the first half,” Vera said. “But I didn’t get my head down and stayed with it. Eventually things turned around.”

Garden City dominated in all aspects, out shooting Wichita Northwest 19-5. Buffalo goalie Francisco Beceril recorded two saves.