Lining up for the biggest kick of his career, senior Parker Hurla tried not to feel the pressure.
With a wide open penalty kick in front of him, he did his best to clear his mind ahead of making school history.
With under five minutes remaining in the match against Heritage Christian Academy Monday night, Hurla found an opportunity to score and tie the school record of 27 career goals. (See video here.)
“Amazing. I love scoring penalties,” Hurla said. “I love scoring goals. It’s always fun. You got to try and make it nothing.”
Led by the history-making goal from Hurla, the boys soccer team took down Heritage Christian Academy 3-1 Monday night at home, winning their second straight game and in the first of what will be three games this week.
The Cardinals (4-6-2) struck first in the opening minute with a goal from senior Dalton Shrum, and then a second goal a few minutes later from junior Kaden Kerr put the Cardinals out in front from start to finish, earning a much needed fourth win of the season.
Even though the visiting Chargers stayed in the game until the final minutes, head coach Darren Erpelding knew his team could have put the game away earlier in the match, but was proud of their effort, especially in the second half.
“The second half was a lot better played,” Erpelding said. “We didn’t have a killer instinct, and I honestly really think a lot of these guys’ minds were [on] tomorrow [against De Soto].”
The Cardinals started out slow at times in the first half, but then picked up the intensity as the game progressed and controlled the tempo of how they wanted to maintain possession.
Shrum’s early goal set the tone for the Cardinals right away, as his goal was one of the quickest for Eudora all season that took some of the edge off less than a minute in.
“I saw Parker play the ball to Derek,” Shrum said. “Derek put one in and managed to get it through the defenders and it ended up right on my foot and then I finished it.”
A few minutes later, Kerr ripped one into the back of the net from 35 yards out and put his team on top 2-0, despite there still being 33:54 left in the opening 40 minutes of play.
Heritage Christian Academy responded quickly, however, by scoring on a breakaway goal with 24:48 left in the first half, and therefore cutting the Cardinals lead in half on one of their few opportunities of the evening.
The scoring for the majority of the second half stayed quiet, in spite of there being various scoring opportunities that the Cardinals had to put away the game earlier than they did.
Hurla’s penalty kick goal officially sent him into the record books, tying the school record of 27 goals set by Keaton Herron, and now needing one more goal to hold the all-time scoring record in Eudora soccer at 28.
It’s now a quick turnaround for the Cardinals with their next match coming in less than 24 hours, taking on De Soto, a tough and well-known competitor to Eudora.
“In all honesty, these guys play club with a lot of those (De Soto) guys,” Erpelding said. “As soon as I got them on the schedule, they want this game. I don’t think it’s going to take much to get these guys ready to go tomorrow.”
The team plays its next match at 6 p.m. Tuesday on the road at De Soto. See post-game video here.
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