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Hays High boys’ soccer continued its gritty march through the loaded Western Athletic Conference field Thursday, giving undefeated and state-ranked Garden City all it could handle before falling 2-1 to the Buffaloes.
After 60 minutes of scoreless ball, the Indians struck first on an Ivan Maldonado goal before Garden City (6-0-1 overall, 2-0-1 WAC) got the equalizer with about nine minutes left in the game.
The Buffaloes then scored the winning goal with four minutes remaining and held on for the win.
Garden City finished with 22 shots on goal, and Hays High goalkeeper Cedric Durr recorded 20 saves.
The only thing keeping Garden City, ranked second in Class 6A, from a perfect record this season was a 1-1 tie to state-ranked Liberal (seventh in 6A).
Liberal and another WAC team, Dodge City (sixth in 6A), each had just one loss on the season heading into their Thursday matchups.
Class 5A Hays High (4-3 overall, 2-2 WAC) will have a busy week ahead with a road game at Wichita-Trinity Monday before home games with Liberal on Thursday and Hesston on Saturday.