PHS Soccer Kicks Off Season at Community America Ballpark

Not every high school soccer player gets to play a game on the same surface as those that compete daily as professionals, but the Park Hill South Panthers did last Saturday in their season opener against St. Louis soccer powerhouse, the Vianney Griffins. The match took place prior to the professional soccer match between the Real Salt Lake and Kansas City Wizards at Community America Ballpark. With player introductions, video replay, and a large stadium atmosphere, the Panthers got to see and feel the way it is for professionals to play the game. Metro Sports was on the scene along with local state rep. Jason Grill, who participated in the opening coin toss.
“It was exciting,” junior Danny Jones said. “They tried to make it as close to a professional setting as possible.”

As for the game, the Panthers started off on the defensive with Vianney controlling the ball in Panther territory for a majority of the first half. The Panther defense was able to prevent several shots from going in early. With 25 minutes left in the first half, Vianney midfielder Andy Harr scored the first goal of the game putting the Griffins up 1-0. South was able to put together a few good attacks on the goal, but failed to score. Then, Vianney struck again at the 15 minute mark when midfielder Steve Mcanany set up Harr for another score. South went into halftime down 2-0. In the second half, the Panthers switched from a defensive 4-4-2 alignment to a 3-4-3 look that balanced out the field a little more. This led to South holding offensive possession more throughout the second half. Unfortunately, more players up front meant less in back defending, which allowed Vianney to capitalize on with several break away goals. A steady pace of scores from the Griffins throughout the second half eventually tallied the score at 8-0 when the final whistle was blown.

South head coach Joe Toigo believed the game was well in reach at halftime because of some early opportunities the Panthers had on the offensive end including two corner kicks. He also emphasized that this is the reason why they schedule high-quality teams.

“You have to figure out what your team can do against varsity competition,” Toigo said. “We found out some things that we do well and have to do more often.”

“We can attack one on one in the flank if we get the ball there and we can be effective on free kicks,” Toigo said of some strength he saw from the first game.
The loss will count in the record book, but won’t affect conference or district standings. One way to gauge the Panthers’ improvement through the season will be to track their play against other high quality opponents including defending state champions Rockhurst, St. Thomas Aquinas, and conference/district rival Park Hill.

Jones looked ahead by saying, “At this point, the more we get together as a team, the better we’ll be.”