Allen Community College is one game away from perfection — for the regular season, that is.
The Red Devils improved to 8-0 Wednesday, with a 7-0 romp over visiting Hesston.
With a single contest remaining in the regular season, at home Saturday against Southeast, Allen is assured of a Jayhawk Conference-Division II championship, and at least one home playoff match.
“This group realizes they can do some special stuff,” Allen head coach Jeremy McGinnis said. “We’ve just got to see it all the way through.”
Funny thing is, even in scoring seven goals against the shorthanded Lark squad, ACC missed on several other opportunities.
“There probably should have been another four or five goals,” McGinnis admitted. “It’s kind of tough we haven’t been able to shoot on goal a lot in practice this week.”
Bouts of rainy weather have forced ACC to practice indoors twice.
That said, Allen’s early onslaught set the tone. The Red Devils led 3-0 by intermission, and peppered Hesston’s goalkeeper with multiple shots from every direction throughout much of the second half.
McGinnis noted the Larks eschewed a strategy adopted by Allen’s two previous opponents that packed in their defenses with a focus on counter-attacks.
While that strategy slowed ACC’s mind-boggling offensive pace, it did little to penetrate the Red Devils’ equally impressive defense.
“Hesston played us straight up,” McGinnis said, despite being without one of its best players due to injury. “I’m sure that had an effect.”
Autumn Wyatt got the fun started, shielding off a defender in a one-on-one situation, spinning around and blasting the ball into the side net for a goal.
“That was a big girl goal,” McGinnis said. “I really loved Autumn’s turn. We’ve been telling them in one-on-one situations to take ’em on, take a chance. She did that.”
Chelsie Thruman gave the Red Devils a spark late in the match when she scored her first career goal, sending the ACC bench into a frenzy.
“She deserved it,” McGinnis said. “She always works hard, and always comes in with a smile on her face. “We were able to get some girls in there who usually don’t get a lot of playing time. Ava (Cook) had a strong game as well.”
