The Trailblazers Men’s soccer team competed last night. Both the JV & Varsity teams went head to head with the Shawnee Mission-East Lancers home at the GEHS Trailblazers Soccer Stadium.

The Junior Varsity were buried by the Lancers suffering another loss to bring their record to 4-3. The Junior Varsity team lost the contest 0-9. This was the second match in a row the JV team of the Blazers was blanked. The JV boys did start the match strong holding the mighty Lancers scoreless for the first 20 minutes of the match. Coach Derek Wilson said of the young men and this match, “We had some good offensive moments and continued to develop our team defense.” The Trailblazers will hold the course and continue down the path of development and improvement they had embarked upon at the beginning of this season.

Next up was the Varsity team. The Blazers started the match with tenacity. They had some struggles and challenges early on with decision-making and found themselves backed into a corner behind an eight ball with a deficit. After gifting the Lancers a goal, relatively early, the mighty Blazers immediately responded with Ethan Lange hooking up with Gilan Brown for a memorable and spectacular goal to equalize and bring the teams to a stale mate at 1-1. The match progressed and it got decidedly worse for the Trailblazers with the Lancers toppling the Blazers with an eventual 6-1 score line. Coach Derek Wilson said of the team and match, “Varsity had a great start to the game, possessing the ball and giving themselves some good looks. A defensive lapse, two PKs and 3 injuries later saw the game get away from us.” The conclusion of that match brings the Blazer Varsity teams record to 2-5 this season.

Last night was also the annual “Pink-Out’ match honoring Coach Jerad Gorney’s wife. Coach Gorney stated of the memorial and honor, “Our pink out game is a really awesome reminder of how great the people and kids at GEHS are.” Additionally, the team and coaches want to thank each and every person that turned up for last nights match for their support of Coach Gorney and his family, the young men that rely upon him and his wonderful example, and the large Gardner community whom without all things would be more challenging. Finally, replicas of the pink jersey the athletes donned during the match are being sold as t-shirts for $20 as a fundraiser to memorialize Ashley Gorney with the construction of a basketball court in our community.

The GEHS Men’s Trailblazer soccer team will once again be competing with heart and tenacity on Tuesday, September 20th versus the Olathe South Falcons with Junior Varsity playing first at 5:00pm and Varsity competing immediately after, playing at the Olathe District Athletic Complex soccer field in Olathe, KS.