By Hutchinson CC Sports Information
GARDEN CITY, Kan. – Freshman goalkeeper Karsyn Slothower came up big several times on Wednesday night to help the No. 18 Hutchinson Community College women’s soccer team to a scoreless draw with the Garden City Broncbusters in the 2023 Jayhawk Conference opener at Broncbuster Stadium.
Slothower registered 10 saves, with three huge stops in the final four minutes to preserve the tie, just the third scoreless draw in program history.
The No. 18-ranked Blue Dragons (1-0-1, 0-0-1 KJCCC) will play host to Seward County at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Salthawk Sports Complex. Garden City is now 2-0-1, 0-0-1 in the league.
The tie is the first time in 31 all-time meetings with Garden City that the Blue Dragons relinquished a point in the standings to the Broncbusters. Hutchinson leads the all-time series with Garden City at 30-0-1. Hutchinson has registered 22 shutouts in series history.
Slothower became just the 13th Blue Dragon goalkeeper in program history to register 10 or more saves in a single game. The last Dragon keeper to reach double figures in saves was Caroline Howard, who had 11 saves against Rose State on August 28, 2016. Slothower tied Ashley Perez, Bailey Shupe and Vickie Dukart for 13th on the Blue Dragon single-game saves list.
Slothower was tested right away with a save just 1:33 into the contest. With 17 minutes to play in the first half, the freshman keeper deflected the ball for a save on a direct free kick straight away from 20 yards out. Slothower immediately made another save on a point-blank shot resulting from a Garden City corner kick. Slothower had six saves in the first half.
The Blue Dragon goalkeeper kept the game scoreless with 17:40 to play when she stopped a Buster breakaway with an aggressive play going 1-on-1 with Jessica Newton.
The final minutes were heart-stopping as Slothower made two late saves and had a Buster sharp-angled shot glance off the right goal post with a little more than a minute to play.
Each team fired 14 shots with 10 shots on goal. Garden City goalkeeper Ava Wilson had seven saves.
Late in the first half, the Blue Dragons couldn’t convert on some prime scoring chances as shots by Katharina Marx, Destiny Hoy and Jayda Wyatt were all legally stopped by scrambling Garden City defenders with Wilson out of position.
The Blue Dragons forced five corner kicks in the first 6 minutes of the second half. The best scoring chance from those set pieces was a header by Wyatt.
GAME NOTES – This is the 10th tie in Blue Dragon women’s soccer history. The game did not go to overtime because of an NCAA rule change not allowing overtime at the end of regulation play of a tied game in regular-season games that was implemented this season. This was the first scoreless draw for the Blue Dragons since October 6, 2021 against Barton.
