Staying Focused: South soccer team - often ahead by multiple goals - challenges itself to maintain high level of intensity

An unseasonably cold Friday night was accompanied by steady drizzle last week, but as the Park Hill South girls soccer team saw their final of eight goals on the night go through the net and the seconds wind down on another conference victory against William Chrisman, there were few complaints because the Panthers are off to their best start in school history. Their 11-1 record speak to their success, but so does the wide margin of their victories with seven of those wins by more than seven goals. Often overmatching their opponents, one challenge the Panthers continuously find themselves facing is the need to sharpen their skills and improve each game.

“Maintaining a high level even when we might not be playing the best team,” Katie Riojas said of their focus. “Right now we’re just working on working well together and using each other’s strengths.”

For a team with just three seniors, a talented group of sophomore and juniors would make it easy to think about the future, but coach Joe Toigo and his players emphasize this is their year. While Toigo believes his team’s greatest strength comes from being able to set up passes effectively and control the game, his players believe it also has to do with a familiarity built from last year’s team.

“I think we have good chemistry. Everyone just messes together well,” Riojas said.

“We had a lot of new players last year, so this year we’re more familiar with each other and all kind of know where each of us is going to go,” added senior Mackenzie Williams.

A former player himself, Toigo says he recognizes soccer is a players’ game and once it starts there are only a few things he can do as a coach to effect the game. With such a skilled team, he’s felt more comfortable letting the players decide what to try in terms of in-game adjustments.

“You can do some strategic things ahead of time off the field, but when the game starts sometimes you just have to get through it,” Toigo said. “Sometimes you make them more nervous by yelling and screaming at them.”

One thing helping the Panthers avoid the complacency that could come with having early season success is the inevitability of facing more competitive and more talented teams as the post-season approaches. South has pinpointed one team in particular as motivation to improve. Liberty, the top-ranked defending state champion, is scheduled to play South April 29th and if they can both repeat as district champions, it could be a preview of a state sectional game.

“We keep trying to get them focused on always improving, no matter how much we’re winning by. We have places we want to get that require us to get better,” Toigo said. “Some of these games become training. Tonight we played 10 players instead of 11 in the second half. 15 minutes into it they understood why we were doing it because we need to keep pushing ourselves. Against a really good team it may feel like we’re down a player so we need to get used to it.”

In addition to the leadership of Riojas and Williams, senior Alexis Mikulich has posted ten shutouts, but if things go according to plan she shouldn’t see the ball too often.

“Alexis is an accomplished goalie. She doesn’t see that much action because the rest of the team is really good at keeping the ball. If we hold it, then there shouldn’t be a lot of shots on the goal,” Toigo said.

Courtney Claassen, Emily Hanlon, and Abbey Johnson join Riojas as they led an offensive attack that’s racked up nearly 40 goals combined this season.

“Courtney is a very fast kid. You can’t guard just her because if you do someone else will take you a part whether it’s Katie Riojas or Abbey Johnson or someone else,” Toigo said. “Strikers are like home run hitters in baseball. They always want the ball. Strikers are trying to shot and score every time they get the ball.”

Just past the halfway point in the season, the Panthers will have their chance to accomplish some of their more immediate goals before they look to meet their post-season benchmarks.

“Definitely winning conference is a goal,” Riojas said.

“…and winning a tournament, we’ve got the Blue Springs South tournament coming up which will be more competitive than our conference schedule,” Williams said.

The Blue Springs South Tournament this week will feature some tough games for South. Combine that with a stretch of four games in five days next week led off with the much anticipated Liberty matchup followed by Raytown, Staley, and Winnetonka.

“Going into the playoffs, those games really push us to see how we’re doing,” Toigo said. “I’m trying to empower them. I want them to talk about us and what we need to do and how we can control what happens.”