Bluegrass Bandits suffer two tough road losses

(Lexington, Ky.)- It certainly wasn’t the kind of weekend Coach Rob Miller and the rest of his Bluegrass Bandits soccer team were looking forward to. Without several key players, Miller knew it would be tough to compete well last weekend, but the Bandits (1-3) hung tough at Indiana (3-1) on Friday, barely losing, 3-2, and then suffered a 4-0 setback to the hands of division-leading Kalamazoo (5-1) on Saturday.

The Bandits will remain on the road this week. The Lexington club will play at West Michigan (1-4) this Friday, June 9, beginning at 8 p.m. followed by a match-up at always tough Mid Michigan on Saturday, June 10. The Bucks (4-1) have won four straight division titles, including a trip to the Sizzlin’ Six championship round in 1996.

To say the Bandits were short-handed going into Friday’s game at Indiana would be an understatement. Despite having only 11 players (including two goalkeepers) available for the game, the Bandits battled hard throughout and were actually tied with the Invaders for a time.

The Lexington team got a goal each from midfielder Buddy Schneider (Lexington Catholic/Marshall University), who now leads the Bandits in scoring with four goals this season, and striker Scott Deopere (Wisconsin-Oshkosh) in the 3-2 setback. The Bandits were so limited in the personnel department, that the club’s two available goalkeepers, Derek Orf and Shawn Pinkston, had to share playing time up front. Even Coach Miller saw action on the pitch.

Bandits’ Assistant Coach Tim Turney said, "We didn’t have many players available, but the guys that we had played hard. To have a chance to win a game with only 11 players is pretty remarkable."

For the second portion of last weekend’s road trip, the Bandits went up against one of the hottest PDL teams at the moment, the Kalamazoo Kingdom. Now at 5-1 in the Premier Development League, the Kingdom got two first half goals from Ryan Trout and then two second half goals from leading scorer Ryan Seymour (7 goals on the season). Kalamazoo goalkeeper Carl Whitehouse posted his second shutout of the season.

For the Bandits, it the first time this season the Lexington-based club was held scoreless in a game.