Plainsmen Soccer is in Good Position Going into the Postseason

A strong finish to the regular season has the Laramie Plainsmen simply playing for seeding at the 4A East Regional Soccer Championships in Cheyenne.

Laramie (11-2-1) is the No. 2 seed for action. They will face No. 3 seed Gillette in Friday’s semifinal action at 3 p.m. The match will be at South High School in Cheyenne. The Camels advanced to face LHS after a 5-0 win over Cheyenne South Thursday.

The Plainsmen have locked in a spot at the Wyoming State Soccer Championships thanks to a second place finish in the 4A East Conference.

Laramie head coach Dan Benford said having the automatic qualification to next week’s state tournament was what we wanted.

“It allows us to use this weekend to try some different things out. Maybe tweak some different things that we’ve been seeing all season, but didn’t want to do, necessarily, in a game we had to win.”

Benford added the big goal is a higher seed, but knowing they’re in takes some pressure off.

It also begs a big question of how much do you put into this weekend since next week is more important?

Benford said, “It’s hard to ask the kids not to try with a hundred percent effort. At the same time we want to look at how we’re managing minutes, and how we’re managing the legs of our boys.”

The Plainsmen have built some momentum up. They’ve won three straight and five of their last six matches heading into the post-season.

Benford said it’s taken a bit with the change in formation and tactic they played with this season.

“I think they’re right at that point where they’re really starting to get creative with it, and the ideas that I had going into the season that we could be dangerous with this are actually coming to fruition.”

He added it’s a matter of playing their own game.

After Friday’s semifinal match, the Plainsmen will be in action Saturday in either the regional championship at 3 p.m. or the third place match at 11 a.m.