CAPTION: Haley Rogers (third from left), getting hugs and congratulations from her teammates, recorded her first career hat trick in the first half and leads the 20th-ranked Blue Dragons to a 7-2 win over Garden City Wednesday night at the Salthawk Sports Complex. CREDIT BLUE DRAGON SPORTS
By John Mesh
Hutchinson Community College’s Haley Rogers scored a hat trick in the first half to lead the No. 20 Blue Dragons to a 7-2 rout of Garden City Wednesday evening at the Salthawk Sports Complex.
The Blue Dragons improved to 2-0. HutchCC has outscored its first two opponents 13-3.
Rogers scored on a long-distance goal at the 4:05 mark in the first half to give the Blue Dragons a 1-0 lead. Rogers scored her second goal 10 minutes later at the 14:22 mark for a 2-0 HutchCC lead.
At the 20:08 mark, HutchCC’s Katharina Marx scored on a long pass from Anastasia Pokrandt to make the score 3-0.
Kaitlyn Edwards fired in a shot at the 35:49 mark to give HutchCC a 4-0 lead.
Rogers, a 5-foot-5 sophomore forward from Maize High School, scored her third goal at the 38:17 mark of the first half for a 5-0 HutchCC lead. It was the first hat trick of her Blue Dragons’ career. The 5-0 lead was the halftime score.
Edwards scored her second goal of the game on an assist from Rogers for the Blue Dragons’ first goal of the second half for a 6-0 lead (at the 55:15 mark).
Garden City’s Jessica Newton broke up the Blue Dragons’ shutout bid with two goals to make the score 6-2.
Faith Pound gave the Blue Dragons’ their seventh goal on assist from Marx at the 82:53 mark.
The Blue Dragons had 33 shots on goal compared to 17 for the Broncbusters. Garden City had 10 saves and HutchCC 5.
HutchCC will travel to Liberal Saturday to play Sward County Community College at 2 p.m. at Liberal High School.
The Blue Dragons host Dodge City Community College at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
HutchCC travels to El Dorado Sept. 7 (Saturday) to play Butler Community College at 1 p.m. at the BG Products Veterans Sports Complex.
HutchCC volleyball team falls to Butler CC
The HutchCC volleyball team (2-3) lost its first Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference match Wednesday night against Butler CC at the Power Plant in El Dorado.
Butler won the match 3 sets to 0 (25-10, 25-16, 25-23).
The Blue Dragons will play two matches Friday and two matches Saturday at the McCook Community College Invitational at the Graff Events Center in McCook, Neb.
On Friday, HutchCC plays Indian Hills (Iowa) Community College at 4 .m. and Lamar (Colo.) Community College at 8 p.m.
On Saturday, the Blue Dragons play Western Nebraska Community College at 11 a.m. and North Platte Community College at 3 p.m.
The McCook CC volleyball team has a 4-0 record. On Friday, McCook CC will play Hill College at noon and Iowa Western at 6 p.m. On Saturday, McCook plays Indian Hills at 9 a.m. and Fort Scott CC at 1 p.m.
The Blue Dragons play Seward County Community College at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Green House in Liberal.
HutchCC plays four matches Sept. 5-7 (Thursday through Saturday) in the Odessa College (Texas) OC Invitational.
The Blue Dragons will play Odessa at 6 p.m. on Sept. 5, New Mexico Junior College at noon and Vernon College at 5 p.m. on Sept. 6 and Panola College at 8 a.m. on Sept. 7.