Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

POWELL - With a nice blend of senior leadership and youth, the Worland Warriors traveled to Powell Saturday and came away with a 2-1 victory over the Powell Panthers.

"I was extremely happy with the team. This was Powell's third game and our first game. We came out there played hard and came away with a win," said WHS boys soccer coach Ron Overcast.

Senior Kyle Lamb scored in the 20th minute to put the Warriors up 1-0. After the Panthers tied the match up 1-1 in the 60th minute, Lamb struck in the match deciding goal in the 73rd minute.

"That was a pretty goal," said Overcast about Lamb's goal in the 73rd minute. "That was probably the best goal he's scored so far in his high school career. Kyle is our one returning all-state player; he put the team on his back and played outstanding."

Defensively, Overcast was pleased with his team's effort, the Warriors were able to dictate the flow of the match against the Panthers with their defense.

"Overall, coach [Kim] Wyman and I were very pleased with the effort of everyone out there. Our back five did a really good job. Gavin Weyrich, Corey Rice, Cody Baumstarck, Ralph Petty and Keller Rogers played really well. Overall our team defense was great, especially in the first half when we were dominating play," said Overcast.

Senior Coy Larkins earned the start at keeper, his first, for the Warriors and tallied up nine saves on the day while only surrendering one goal.

"Coy Larkins did a great job in his first varsity start," said Overcast. "The goal we gave up was on a corner, which we haven't spent much time on but that will change this week for sure."

For the match the Warriors had an impressive 27 shots on goal and Powell's keeper had 20 irritating saves. With so many chances on goal but not being able to produce more goals, frustration got to the Warriors in the second half.

"We came out of halftime and were almost playing too desperate. We were stabbing at the ball a lot. We were still getting our chances but we weren't doing the things we were doing in the first half. We were struggling to score and I believe that's what led to some of the frustration in the second half," said Overcast.

The Warrior freshmen also contributed to Saturday's win, spelling for the starters and holding their own in their first varsity action.

"We played four freshmen a lot of minutes in this game. Wyatt [Wyman], Devin [Mercado], Konnor [Macy] and Jamie [Luna] were our subs for the varsity game and they played outstanding for us," said Overcast. "You would think they'd be scared to death in their first experience of high school soccer, but they went out there and played really well. They didn't play nervous and really gave our team a boost."

Thursday the Warriors hit the road and take on the soon-to-be No. 1-ranked Cody Broncs at Cody High School at 5 p.m.

"I suspect they'll be No. 1 in the state after this weekend," said Overcast. "They're a good team. They have an outstanding keeper, several returning all-state players, and they have an excellent coach. They're going to be a handful for our young team and we'll need to play well to compete with these guys. They have real speed at the striker positions, so we'll have to play smart sound defense."