South wins district title, ends Park Hill streak

No matter what had happened in Park Hill and Park Hill South’s three previous meetings this season, there was no question the district championship meeting they earned their way to last week would be the most important and deciding game of their series this year. While Park Hill South had won two of their three meetings this year, Park Hill won 1-0 in the most recent game on October 15^th and had the confidence of knowing they had ended Park Hill South’s season three years in a row in district play coming into last week’s meeting.

Despite what seemed as the Trojans’ strong recent grasp over the Panthers in district play, it was a moment in Park Hill South’s 3-0 victory over Smithville which they believe gave them the extra energy boost needed to finally break that streak. Injuries can not only create a physical absence on the field, but remove an emotional focus as well. So when a senior-laden and tight-knit group saw senior Ryan Dansby break his leg in the second half, it really shook the Panthers up.

“When it happened, we were up 3-0, but it was almost as if we could have lost it at that point,” Park Hill South coach Joe Toigo said. “They were really upset and it really took a lot out of us. The possibility for injury is always there, but to play hard you can’t let it enter your mind. However, when you see it happen, it’s almost impossible to erase from your mind.”

The lingering effects of the injury carried over into the next day’s practice where they needed to focus on the ensuing title game against Park Hill, something they’d been focusing their entire season towards. Enter the coaching staff, who organized with the booster club to order warm-up jerseys with Dansby’s #2 on them. The energy that created was something to be reckoned with and evident in the stadium the following night, not only from the team, but the parents and students as well.

“We really needed to do something to get their mind off it,” Toigo said. “They were so excited when they got those warm-ups earlier tonight. Their spirit has been great all year, so when we lose (on the field or, in this case, off of it) we can keep them from getting too far down.”

Re-energized, the Panthers had renewed their focus on their postseason aspirations while also using it to play for their injured teammate. Adam Weatherly would put Park Hill South up a goal towards the end of the first half, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead at halftime. Brian Kissee would score in the opening minute of the second half to give them the exclamation point they needed for what would be the final 2-0 score. Park Hill, while physical and competitive until the very end, would not recover, never quite able to finish on a handful of near scoring opportunities.

After avoiding a complete Gatorade-drenching and hearing his team sing their fight song, Toigo talked about the new motivation and importance of using that to score early.

“There’s no question we’re playing for Ryan, as well as for ourselves. When we’re playing for ourselves, we’re playing for Ryan,” Toigo said. “If we can score first, we’re not bunkering ourselves in, but it gives us that little boost of confidence. I think we’re where we want to be right now.”

Park Hill South was playing Liberty in the Missouri state sectional round Tuesday night at The Citizen went to press. A win would send them to the state quarterfinals against Rockhurst/Lee’s Summit North this Saturday.

Third time is a charm for Park Hill

Before the season even began, the Park Hill and Park Hill South soccer teams knew they could potentially face each other up to four times before the season was over. Park Hill South would go on to hand Park Hill losses in their previous two meetings, the most recent being a 1-0 win in double overtime just two weeks ago to clinch the Panther Classic tournament title. Whether it real or pure clique, the old saying about it being hard to beat a team three times held true in the teams’ third meeting as Park Hill would break a scoreless stalemate when Matt Russell scored a late goal with about three minutes left in the game to gain the 1-0 advantage. The goal would serve as the game winner and give Round Three to the Trojans.

Park Hill coach Josh Marchbank says after losing two games to their rival they came to play with a different sense of urgency and focus.

“For our seniors, we said this was the last time we were going to play Park Hill South on this field so after losing two games to them earlier this season, for lot of these guys it was a motivator,” Marchbank said. “We talked about how the first two games we let the environment and the frustrations take hold. Tonight we really stepped up to the task. We possessed the ball very well tonight.”

Park Hill defender Cain Winebrenner believed the victory, compared to their previous two losses to the Panthers, came down to determination and the will to win.

“We hope to use this as momentum to get the second half of our season started and get ready for districts,” Winebrenner said. “We were hungrier (than last time) and we came out ready to play.”

Park Hill South coach Joe Toigo says Monday’s loss has more to do with not converting scoring opportunities than any kind of perceived difficulty of beating a team three times, something the Panthers have struggled with so far this season.

“It’s our fault for the margin of error. If we put the balls away and score, we’re up 2-0. It’s our problem and has nothing to do with beating them three times or four times,” Toigo said. “No matter who we play, our margin of error has been very thin because we don’t finish the opportunities that are there. If you take away our blowouts, we’re only winning by an average of 0.8 goals a game.”

Leading up to their game Monday night, Park Hill South went 2-0 last week with a 1-0 win over Rockhurst in which Adam Weatherly scored the winning goal in the final minutes as well as a 9-0 win over Ruskin. Park Hill defeated Ruskin 10-0 and Truman 4-2 before losing to Blue Springs South in a closely contested 3-2 match.

Park Hill, now 14-5, faces Liberty this week before finishing out the regular season against Staley and St. Joe Central next week. Park Hill South, with a record of 18-4, looks to Kearney Thursday and next week will conclude their schedule against Truman and Oak Park. Just around the corner for both is the postseason and a potential fourth matchup between the two teams in district play, this time with the winner moving on and the loser ending their season. With tough regular season schedules designed to prepare them for postseason situations, both teams should be primed for the challenge.

“The goal is to play every game like the state championship,” Toigo said. “That way you’ve played it 25 times before you get there.”

Soccer rivals get first look at each other

If last week’s matchup between Park Hill and Park Hill South is any indication of the future excitement between these two rivals, there will be a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks for these two teams. In front of a near-capacity crowd last Wednesday, both teams, who are considered two of the best in the metro, squared off in the first of what could be four matchups this season. Park Hill South would pull out a 2-1 victory over Park Hill, but the anticipation and physical nature of the game left plenty on the field for the next scheduled game between the two Oct. 15 or even earlier during the tournament the Panthers host next week.

Even with strong senior classes at the helm of both teams, each knew the advantages and disadvantages of playing in front of a highly fueled crowd, each hoping to stay focused on the task at hand.

“We tried to take this just as any other game,” Park Hill South coach Joe Toigo said. “We need to keep doing what we’ve prepared ourself for all season. We didn’t put anything extra on this game. It’s hard to keep high school kids settled with this much yelling and screaming. I think they kept their composure pretty good tonight."

“We told ourselves coming into this game that the team that would win is the team who stayed the most emotionally balanced, focused and didn’t let those tie into the game,” Park Hill coach Josh Marchbank said. “It’s tough when you have an atmosphere like tonight.”

Park Hill South’s Jordan Lindsey sent the Panther faithful into a roar when he scored the game’s first goal just minutes in to put the Panthers up 1-0 early. Scoring would not be what defined the contest though, as tough and physical play went back and forth throughout the night. Park Hill South would widen its lead in the second half when Andrew Gonzalez added a goal to put the game solely in the Panthers’ control. Park Hill would fight back though when Timmy Hay scored around the nine-minute mark. Several Park Hill attempts to tie the score late went unconverted as the Panther defense held, giving the first matchup between the two teams to the Panthers.

“We’re probably going to see them three more times this year. This is only game one. What counts is how we respond,” Marchbank said. “It was disappointing, I think we lost focus for a bit and they slipped it behind us. Two simple mistakes cost us the game tonight. We have a week off, which is good because this game takes a physical and emotional toll.” 

While Park Hill, now 8-2, had the chance to rest with the remainder of their week off before preparing for another round of tough conference matchups, Park Hill South continued on with a tough stretch that runs into this week. They defeated Ruskin 9-0 before playing tough Olathe East in a previously rained out tournament title game where the Panthers won 2-1 on penalty kicks. While running up an impressive 10-2 record so far this year, Toigo says his team has played a lot of close games and in order to improve they need to make sure they don’t leave themselves vulnerable to game-costing mistakes.

“We’ve played a lot of close games. We’re not even averaging 2 goals a game,” Toigo said. “We need to finish better. We’re 8-2, but could easily be 2-8 because our margin of error is so narrow with the amount of goals we’re scoring."

Park Hill South plays at Truman and hosts St. Joe Central this week before starting their own tournament next week while Park Hill looks next to this week’s games against Lee’s Summit West and then Oak Park at Livestrong Sporting Park.

FALL PREVIEW: Park Hill South Boys Soccer

With 16 seniors returning for the Park Hill South boys soccer team from last year's 16-9-1 season, Coach Joe Toigo believes it has the potential to be a rewarding 2012 season.

"These guys have a chance to have a great season," Toigo said. "We had our ups and downs last year as a fairly young team, but we're ready to build off of that this year."

The Panthers return almost 90% of their total goals from last season including five players that produced eight or more with seniors Brody Bouillon (14 goals), Alex Weatherly (10), and Adam Weatherly (9) as well as juniors Jordan Lindsey (12) and Josh Hall (8). While Park Hill South features a strong offensive lineup, they feature a well-balanced team and have players at every position that have proven they can score when needed, but defend as well. Seniors returning with significant varsity playing time on defense last year include Nick Smith, Chris Blevins, and Josh Hunt.

“We’re probably more offensive than defensive right now, but we’re working on it,” Toigo said. “We have quality players on both sides of the field though.”

Heath Turner hopes to build on his 10.5 shutouts in 21 games at goalie last year with the help of Marc DeJesus who adds capable depth at the position. Others who will be in the mix at various positions include seniors Andrew Gonzales, Brian Kissee, and Jack Summa.

"With a young team last year, I think the mental part of the game was something we struggled with," Toigo said. "Coming back this year, I'm seeing a higher level of maturity to handle some of those situations better."

Strong, senior-laden teams are what successful high school teams can use as a foundation, so the talent level the Panthers will have on the field in 2012 certainly comes with high expectations. Coming off a winning season gives the team that much more motivation to fulfill their goal of making a run at the state playoffs.

The road to the postseason is likely to go through three-time district champion Park Hill who has ended Park Hill South's season each of the last three years by handing them a defeat in district tournament play, two times of which were in district title games. With conference realignment, the two teams will play twice in league play which will give both sides a familiarity with each other should they meet in district play again.

Early season participation against some of the area’s toughest competition will prepare them well as the Panthers kick the season off at the Olathe Invitational on August 24th followed up the next weekend with play in the Blue Valley North Invitational.

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.

Park Hill/Park Hill South boys soccer: mid-season update

Park Hill South Boys Soccer
… are now 6-4-1 after splitting their two games last week. After defeating Raytown 4-1 on two goals from Broday Bouillon and one a piece from Nick Smith and Brian Kissee, Park Hill South took a 1-0 lead into halftime against Liberty to conclude the week, but two late second half goals pushed Liberty past the Panthers 2-1.

"We came out attacking the ball like crazy,” coach Joe Toigo said of the Panthers first half. “They (Liberty) changed the style of play on us and we didn’t adapt very well. The game means nothing. We play them because they’re a rival. It’s not a conference game. Not a district game. But it’s like a backyard brawl because the kids play each other all year round.”

South will likely compete with Fort Osage for the conference title down the stretch of the season. Brody Bouillon has gone on a scoring spree of lot and solidified himself as one of the Panthers top attackers while Josh Hunt gives South a calming presence in the backfield. Josh Hall, Adam Weatherly, and Alex Weatherly have all proven consistent at the midfield position up to this point.

“We’re young physically and young mentally,” Toigo said. “We are a good passing, possession team. If we get away from that, we’ll have difficulty. We try to get possession 60 or 70% of the team.”

The Panthers travel to St. Louis to participate in the Gateway Classic Classic towards the end of this week.

Park Hill Boys Soccer

… improved to 5-6 on the season with a 3-2 overtime victory over Blue Springs last week. Matt Russell and Devon Belew scored two in regulation before Blue Springs came back to tie the game and forcing it into overtime. Belew scored in the opening minutes of overtime to end the game and send the Trojans into this week with a victory.

“They’re a solid team. We got comfortable and let up. It was a good test for us,” coach Dustin Sollars said.

The Trojans are hoping to get back onto the winning side after a tough start to the season.

“We’re trying to climb out of a bad first few games,” Sollars said. “We’ve gotten tested every time we go out this year. We’re resilient, they don’t give up. All three of our goals were the result of hard work, not quitting on a ball. We really killed ourselves conditioning at the beginning of the year and I think we’re starting to reap the benefits of being in shape.”

Offensively, Matt Russell and Tim Hay have seen most of the goals, but as Belew demonstrated against Blue Springs, his speed can serve the Trojans well from the back.

“He’s very fast and capable. I think his ability to read the game is great,” Sollars said. “His speed is deception because it catches people off guard and isn’t as evident compared to our forwards.”

Park Hill hosts St. Joe Central this week before playing in the Panther Classic all next week.

BOYS SOCCER PREVIEW: Park Hill South will one of top teams in the area

Coming into this season, the Park Hill South boys soccer team is shaping up to be one of the top teams in the metro. This not only based on their surprising 20-6 record last season as a young and inexperienced group, but also the fact they return almost all of that team again this year. Coach Joe Toigo says his team won some games last year that the other team didn’t necessarily think they should have lost, but South expects to have the upper-hand and more control over their destiny this season.

“A lot of teams last year thought they should have beat us, but we won a couple in penalty kicks. We’re hoping more than last year that we’ll be able to make teams play us instead of us play them. Hope to physically be a little better and hold the ball on their end more,” Toigo said.

Leading a more experienced, but still young squad this year will be four seniors. Central defender Sam Tuggle, outside defender Ethan Robb, wing Tyler Easton, and Robert Geary. All Toigo says have a lot of experience and could play in college if they want. Also coming back are junior forwards Brody Bouillion (6 goals, 4 assists) and Alex Weatherly (10 goals, 12 assists). Sophomore Josh Hall and Nick Smith will play big roles in regards to controlling the tempo of the game as the midfield positions.

“They’re all very good soccer players, very versatile and can play a lot of different positions. Not the traditional one position players,” Toigo said. “We’re hoping this is something we can building and carry on for several years.”

Heath Turner, his eleven shutouts and 118 saves return at goalie, while a starter last year, the 6’4” last resort of protection put a strong focus on camps and clinics in the offseason to become what his coach describes as one of the team’s most improved players.

The Panthers will kick things off at the competitive Olathe Tournament where they’ve seen success in the past. They’ll likely see strong contention from Belton and Fort Osage as they defend their conference title. Liberty, Oak Park, and Park Hill highlight benchmark games in the schedule. Traveling to St. Louis for the Gateway Classic will expose South to three very good out of town teams with three different styles of play as a good tune-up for postseason play.

Most important though is breaking a three year district title drought that has left them as runners-up and on the sidelines from the Missouri state playoffs.

“If we do what we’re supposed to do early, then we don’t have to worry about the dramatics at the end (like last year),” Toigo said. “The attacking players are there. The potential is there. These guys could become a very good team. We just have to nurture it.”

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.

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.”

Returning starters to pace PHS soccer team

Despite having an 11-10 record last season, the Park Hill South Panthers advanced through the district tournament before losing in the championship game. With a majority of those same players returning this season as seniors, South will be looking for more consistency this year.

“We’re looking to be more consistent because we had some games that just weren’t very level, either because we had the lead and lost it or got behind then played great, but were already losing,” head coach Joe Toigo said.

The Panthers will feature fifteen seniors and about three juniors on varsity this year. Leading the offensive attack will be senior forward Joe Sbarro, who set a school record for goals scored last season, midfielder Jacob Fischer, and midfielder Mirsad Halili. Defensively, South will feature seniors Ryan Harris and Cody Mortenson, along with junior Tyson McGuire.

“We’ve got a lot of players that saw significant minutes last year,” Toigo said.

With South returning the school’s record-holding goal scorer in Sbarro, it would be easy to say the Panthers will be strong on the offensive side, but they believe they have some good players overall to the point where both sides can be strengths.

“They’re just really good soccer players. So hopefully when we have the ball we’ll be good at attacking and when we don’t then we’ll be good at defending too,” said Toigo.

Follow the Panthers this year as they build on last year’s district run which includes match-ups against Park Hill and Oak Park, both conference and district contenders.