Plainsmen Soccer Faces A One-Game Season [VIDEO]

The biggest day of the soccer season is Thursday for the Laramie Plainsmen, as they try to qualify for the state tournament next week.

No. 3 seed Laramie (7-5-2) takes on No. 6 seed Cheyenne South (5-10-2) at the 4A East Regional Tournament from Thunder Basin High School in Gillette. The match is set for Thursday at 3 p.m.

Plainsmen head coach Dan Benford visited with KOWB’s David Settle about the one-game season scenario. He admitted he’s not the biggest fan, but they have to be ready anything. He’s okay with the match-up and feels his team might not know any better because it’s been three years since they faced this type of situation.

Senior Enrique Isidro said it’s certainly different since they’re used to qualifying automatically.

“It’s kind of scary, but I know we can do it. We’re a good team, and I know the potential we have. I think we’re good honestly.”

As for the match-up versus South, Isidro said, “We know they’re an aggressive team. They’re pretty good, and they have some fast kids that can definitely score on us if we let them shoot. Got to watch out for those kids and play our game on Thursday.”

Fellow senior Alex Moreno said thinking back to his freshman season when Laramie was knocked out in this scenario, he’d rather not go through that again.

“Honestly it was devastating because you play the whole year with those seniors and they put in all that work, and you get to the end of the year and you don’t make it to state, it really sucks. We’re just going into this qualifier with everything we’ve got.”

The Plainsmen swept the Bison in their two regular-season meetings. It was a 5-0 home victory for LHS on April 5. Then on April 26, Laramie prevailed in Cheyenne, 4-1.

Now it all comes down to Thursday at 3 p.m. If LHS wins, they will advance at the regional tournament, go to state in Jackson next week and get to play four more games this season. If they lose, the Plainsmen see their season come to an end.

The winner will play No. 2 seed Cheyenne Central Friday at 3 p.m. The other first-round match has No. 4 seed Cheyenne East facing No. 5 seed Sheridan for the right to go to state and then face top seed Thunder Basin Friday at 7 p.m.