By Alex Kuhn
Sports Editor
The Warriors travel to Green River for the Southwest Soccer Invitational
Share
Tweet
Alex Kuhn
Mason Werbelow looks to keep the pressure on Riverton during their April 5 victory over the Wolverines.
WORLAND - The Worland Warriors boys soccer team will head to Green River this weekend for the Southwest Soccer Invitational.
The Southwest Soccer Invitational will have a different setup from the Pinnacle Challengers Cup Tournament here in Worland. To start with, the 14 teams participating will be separated into four groups. Group A will have Green River, Pinedale, Worland and Buffalo; Group B Rock Springs, Lander and Douglas; Group C Jackson, Cody and Torrington; Group D Evanston, Rawlins, Powell and Star Valley.
Today's matches will consist of group play and depending on how a team finishes, will determine what bracket they will play in on Saturday. The Gold Bracket is for the group winners, Silver Bracket for the second-place finishers and the Bronze Bracket for the third- and fourth-place finishers.
Scoring for the group play is as follows - 3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and an added .5 point for a shutout win.
Also during group play matches will be shortened to 25-minute halves in order to adhere to the 160-minute limit a player can play set by the Wyoming High School Activities Association. On Saturday the Gold and Silver brackets will play 40-minute halves, while the Bronze Bracket will remain playing 25-minute halves. Just like in the Challengers Cup, there will be no overtime and any tie will be decided by a best-of-five shootout, with a sudden death shootout if there's a tie at the end of the first shootout.
Speaking with coach Ron Overcast about the weekend's tournament he said, "We had a good week of practice and the guys had great energy all week. The tournament will be a good test for state we'll play 150 minutes the first day and if things turnout well 160 the next.
"The main goal will be to win, outside of that we'll look to start different lineups along with guys at different positions to see what works best."
The Warriors will be heading into the tournament with a share of the No. 1 ranking, in 3A, with Jackson.
"The pressure of being one of the top teams is obvious but having that bullseye is a good thing. It makes you play at a higher level and you can't take a game lightly because you're getting everyone's best shot," said coach Overcast.
The Warriors will open group play against Buffalo at 10:45 a.m., followed by Pinedale at 1:15 p.m. and then finish the day against Green River at 7:30 p.m.
