Park Hill beats Park Hill South in 2OT thriller

Who said soccer wasn’t a contact sport? It certainly was last week as Park Hill took on Park Hill South with a packed Park Hill District Stadium on hand. With half the stands peppered purple and the other red, fans were able to see what has turned into one of top soccer rivalries in the area.
An evenly balanced game throughout the first half included several opportunities for both teams, but quality saves by goalkeepers Shane VanHooser of Park Hill and Kurt Ehlers of Park Hill South kept the score 0-0 going into halftime.

“We had a lot of opportunities one on one with their goalkeeper,” said South coach Joe Toigo. “A lot of their shots came from a distance.”
No love was lost in the second half. Both teams received multiple yellow cards after small pushing matches occurred at various points. Park Hill coach Dustin Sollars talked about how very little it matters which team is better from year to year. A very successful team can come in and it’s always close no matter what.

“Throw everything out the window for Park Hill and Park Hill South, and hope you can make it through with as few cards and little blood as possible,” Sollars said.
South started off the second half aggressively, this led to Michael Combs receiving a ricocheted ball off the post and putting it in for a goal at the thirty-seven minute mark. The Panthers controlled the ball for the majority of the second half, but the Trojans added some late theatrics to the game when David Zdvorak used a free kick to assist Quenton Noble with a score with three minutes to play. Regulation ended with a score of 1-1.
Both teams came up empty in two overtime periods, which led to a series of penalty kicks to decide the match. An enthusiastic crowd was on their feet as each kick resulted in one half of the stadium erupting in enthusiasm while the other groaned. After a South miss on the fourth round of five penalty kicks, Park Hill’s Ray Lee scored what would be the game winner. VanHooser saved the day, as the public address announcer said so many times throughout the night, when he blocked Cody Mortensen’s kick from going into the goal to give the Trojans a 2-1 victory via 4-3 in penalty kicks. Trojan faithful went crazy as the players celebrated on the field, and then came to thank their loyal fans for enduring the two and a half hour match.
“I thought we played well, but lost our composure at the end,” Toigo said. “No matter if we win or lose, we’re always looking for things to work on.”

After last week’s game, both Park Hill and Park Hill South come into this week with records of 3-3. Both teams face strong schedules throughout the season, including against each other, which will allow them to face top competition between conferences games leading into district play.

For Park Hill, the game against South was their third game in three days and it could have been an easy let-down game, but the adrenaline of playing their rival gave them an extra boost.

“I think that’s one of the reasons our guys were able to step up and play tonight,” Sollars said.