Tonganoxie, KS — We finally got a beautiful night for soccer Tuesday—and maybe just as importantly, a decent 6 p.m. start time—as we hosted Topeka Hayden. The boys came away with a 2-0 win and our first shutout of the season. We got on the board in the first half when Mason Benedict found Jaxon Albert, and Jaxon was able to finish it to put us up 1-0. The second half turned into a battle. Hayden put us under some pressure and had opportunities to get themselves back into the game, but Ivan Franco came up huge for us in goal. He made some big saves when we needed them and helped keep Hayden off the board. Late in the second half, we were finally able to give ourselves some breathing room. Thaddeus Hileman found Jaxon, and Jaxon finished his second goal of the night to give us the 2-0 lead. We’re going through a bit of an adjustment period right now. After Mason Sparks sustained an injury against Baldwin, we’ve had to change our formation and move some guys into positions they haven’t played much before. It’s going to take a few games for everyone to get comfortable with the changes and understand their new roles. That’s part of a season, though. Injuries happen, and when they do, other guys have to be ready to step up. We’re a young team in several spots, and some of those younger guys are now being asked to take on bigger roles. We’re hoping the changes we’ve made will help us as we continue through the season and fight through some of these injuries. There will be some growing pains as we figure it out, but Tuesday was a good step forward. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but we found a way to get the job done. We scored twice, kept a clean sheet, had guys step into new roles and walked away with a 2-0 win over Topeka Hayden. We’ll take it and keep building from here.