Park Hill South takes title in Panther Classic

The Park Hill Trojans soccer team left the field at the Park Hill District Athletic Complex on Saturday with an unsettling and unfamiliar feeling following the championship game of the Park Hill South Panther Classic. That feeling came from the 3-0 loss they suffered at the hands of host school Park Hill South (12-6-1), the first such time they have not won the Classic since it started four years ago.

“We’re very disappointed. Since this tournament started we haven’t lost it,” Park Hill Coach Dustin Sollars said. “I think we’re disappointed in our own effort, especially since we did have the ball so much. I think they recognize they can do better.”

Park Hill’s loss was South’s gain and while the Trojans had possession of the ball on the Panthers side of the field for a good majority of the game, South was able to capitalize on break away opportunities to bust the game wide open in the second half.

“They (Park Hill) did a real good job of possessing the play and territory,” Park Hill South coach Joe Toigo said. “That’s not usually the way we like to play. All of our goals came on quick stuff.”

That tone was set almost immediately out the gate in the first half, when South got their first goal just a minute and a half into the game when South converted a re-start into the Panthers’ first goal. It would remain 1-0 at halftime before South tagged on two more late second half goals. Expectedly, the rivalry between the two teams began to show more signs of life in the second half when both increased their physicality.

“I told our players this is like a college game, it’s going to be physical and the refs aren’t going to call it a lot of the time,” Toigo said. “In the upper levels, many of those plays won’t be fouls.”

Toigo said his team has been focusing on playing with the mentality that the rest of their games are playoff games and hopes it will pay off when they actually do get into games where they face elimination.

“We talked about being prepared to play now like every play is the last,” Toigo said. “We can’t just turn it on October 31st for districts. It’s important to play the whole game as if it is the end of the season.”

Park Hill South defeated Winnetonka (7-0) and Ray-Pec (2-0) to advance to the title game while Park Hill beat Platte County (2-0) and Smithville (3-2, 2 OT). For Park Hill, the Trojans realize there’s a need to improve and judging by the long faces following the match, they’ll have plenty of motivation to make adjustments in case the two teams meet again in the postseason.

“If we don’t want to be a .500 team then we need to do better, we’ve had several games in our eight losses where we’ve controlled the possessions and lost,” Sollars said.

“We could see each other again in the playoffs,” Toigo said. “This was big for us, because we haven’t had much success against them in the past couple years, but we finally got to win our own tournament.”

Both teams will focus their efforts on the conclusion of their conference schedule, which both teams will be competing for title banners, before district tournaments begin at the end of October. Depending on results going forward, Park Hill and Park Hill South should find themselves in the top portion of the district seedings along with Oak Park who has been on an impressive winning streak over the past month.