By BRETT MARSHALL

Special to The Hays Daily News

GARDEN CITY -- After watching his team lose 4-0 to cross-town rival Hays High School in the McPherson Tournament, Thomas More Prep-Marian boys' soccer coach Shawn Larson knew he had reason to be concerned about his Monarchs' road trip to face the Garden City Buffaloes.

His fears became well-founded on Tuesday when the Buffaloes manhandled the Monarchs, 10-2, at Buffalo Stadium.

"It's about what I expected," Lawson said in watching his team fall to 2-3 for the young season. "We've got kids from five or six other towns, six or seven from different countries and it's kind of like putting a puzzle together. We're still working on finding the pieces to the puzzle."

Playing at the stadium on the new Garden City campus, the teams were battling southerly wind blowing at a steady 25 to 30 mph with gusts up to 36.

"I knew if we didn't get a few goals in the first half (with trailing wind), we'd be in trouble," Lawson said.

Garden City took just 10 minutes into the game to get its offense into gear..

Diego Benitez provided the early scoring spark for the Buffs, getting a cross from Joel Sanchez in the 10th minute. Exactly four minutes later, in the 14th minute, Jose Alcantar got a rebound off a TMP defender and knocked the shot in to make it 2-0.

The Monarchs would cut the deficit in half when they scored on a penalty kick by Rodney Deus when one of the Garden players got called for a handball. That score came in the 22nd minute.

Not to be deterred, the TMP score seemed to ignite the Buffs as they quickly added two more goals before halftime.

Less than two minutes later, Benitez got his second goal on a direct kick in the 24th minute. Then sophomore forward Erik Barragan scored on a dribble up the left line and slid between two TMP defenders and knocked the ball in past a diving Monarch goalkeeper, Collan Lawson in the 26th minute.

That provided a 4-1 halftime margin for the home team.

The Buffs kept the pressure on at the outset of the second half as Sanchez took a long cross from Barragan to knock it in the far right side of the goal past Lawson to make it 5-1.

It would continue to be a scoring affair for the Buffs as they added goals by Joel Sanchez (45th and 48th minutes), Emilio Castillo (53rd minute), David Fuentes (73rd minute), Kevin Juardo (75th minute) and Ismael Hernandez (76th minute). The Monarchs lone goal of the second half came just 20 seconds after Juardo's goal when Tyler Reuschoff scored.

It is a Monarch team dominated by freshmen and sophomores for coach Lawson, who takes players each year from out of town and out of country and tries to blend them together.

"We've got some great individual players, and we've got some players who are just learning the game," Lawson said. "We knew after seeing Garden had beaten Hays (3-1) and we lost to Hays (4-0), that it would be a tough game for us. When we didn't get much of anything in the first half, I knew it would be a long game."

Despite the lopsided loss, Lawson said the team was improving.

"We had a lot of offsides, but I thought our backside play was better and the kids were not giving up," Lawson said.

TMP goalkeeper Collan Lawson had 10 saves for the Monarchs. They are on the road again on Thursday at Buhler for a 4 p.m. contest.