By BRETT MARSHALL

Special to The Hays Daily News

GARDEN CITY -- Hays High School boys' soccer coach Chris Michaelis made the two-plus hour drive on Saturday to watch Garden City High School's season opening 6-1 win agaisnt Emporia.

Less than 48 hours later, he was in the HHS bus to escort his Indians back to Garden City for their season opener against the Buffs.

Michaelis watched his team struggle in the early going, as the speedy Buffs scored two goals within a two-minute span of the first half and eventually held off the Indians for a 3-1 Western Athletic Conference triumph at the new GCHS stadium.

"I knew what to expect after watching their game on Saturday," Michaelis said. "Garden City is very quick and well-skilled. They make you pay for your mistakes and that cost us dearly."

Despite giving up 13 shots in the opening 25 minutes, the Indians were still locked in a scoreless battle with the Buffs as their defense locked down in the goal box to keep the home team at bay.

"They tend to like to play that way, try to wait you out and then counter," said Garden City coach Joaquin Padilla. "They're always a tough team to contend with."

Garden's first goal came on a bicycle kick by senior Win Ko, who took a rebound shot by David Amaro and, with his back to the goal, kicked it high over the outstretched arms of Hays goalkeeper Joshua Johnson. That came in the 27th minute and less than two minutes later, the Buffs went up 2-0 when David Fuentes made a nifty through ball to Amaro, who sent the ball into the net with just over 10 and a half minutes left before intermission.

Garden had apparently put the game out of reach in the 47th minute when Estaban Neave took the ball up the left line, dribbled and then hit a cut into the lower side of the left goal for a commanding 3-0 advantage.

The Indians, though, didn't roll over.

With just under 14 minutes left in the game, Hays High's Jordan Windholz dribbled the ball down the right line 25 yards and then took a shot from the 20-yard line. The shot curved left and went high into the far left side of the goal, cutting the deficit to 3-1.

"He made a heckuva shot there," Michaelis said of Windholz. "There wasn't anywhere else it could've gone and scored. He really set their goalkeeper up and then made a nice move to get the shot off."

Then, with 4:35 left, Hays High had a goal, a header by Lane Clark, negated by a pushing penalty in the goal box that would have trimmed the lead to 3-2.

"Combine that with the header that Jordan (Windholz) just missed in the first half, a great opportunity, and it might have been a different game," Michaelis said.

He said he thought the Indians showed improvement as the game progressed into the second half.

"It just takes a little time to get used to each other," Michaelis said. "A lot of the kids didn't play in the summer so we're going to take a little time to catch up. It is what it is. We lost some key seniors, but that's high school, and you just have to have the new kids step up. The things we need to work on can be fixed. We'll get after it and move on."

The Indians will host McPherson at 4 p.m. on Thursday.