Park Hill South’s Jace Hubbard kicks the ball in the Panthers’ opening round 8-0 win over North Kansas City on Oct. 28.
PARKVILLE – The Park Hill South boys’ soccer team (16-2-1) showed why it earned the No. 1 seed in the Class 4 District 8 Tournament by opening up postseason play with a mercy rule 8-0 win on Oct. 28.
The district tournament was at Park Hill South High School, giving the Panthers home field advantage on top of having a favorable first-round matchup against North Kansas City (10-11). This was the first time these teams played each other since the 2021 postseason when the Hornets came away with a 2-1 victory in PKs.
Ahoy Victore and Zack Adams struck early with a pair of goals. Benny Rouse took advantage of poor defensive positioning by North Kansas City and added the third score of the night in the 27th minute.
Austin Felton added another Park Hill South goal with right under three minutes left in the half to push the lead to 4-0 right ahead of the break. Eight different Panthers scored a goal on the day, with Ty Stone being the next one to strike.
William Bowen and Asher Huffman were the next two to find the back of the net. Dagmawi Gudeta scored the final goal of the night in the second half to extend the lead to 8-0.
This was the first postseason shutout victory by Park Hill South since defeating Liberty North 3-0 on Nov. 2, 2020. The 8-goal triumph was the largest postseason margin of victory by the Panthers in the last 15 years.
Park Hill South advanced to the district semifinals to take on Liberty (13-5) on Oct. 31. The Panthers entered the night with three consecutive wins against the Blue Jays since 2022, including a 1-0 triumph back on Oct. 26.