When a lightly kicked ball snuck past two players on the Park Hill South girls’ soccer team (5-3) to give Liberty (6-3) a 2-1 overtime victory, Olivia Gates and Annabelle Winter bent over and put their hands on their head out of disbelief on April 9.
Park Hill South’s goalkeeper, Winter, had six saves prior to the final play, but a mental lapse in the closing moment was the deciding factor. When a Blue Jay made slight contact with the ball towards the Panthers’ goal, Gates and Winter had a chance to prevent Liberty from scoring the game-winning score, but both thought the other player was going to stop it.
The ball slipped through the net with less than five minutes left in the first sudden death overtime period and Liberty broke the 1-1 tie and won. The Park Hill South duo showed their emotional disappointment on their faces and with their body language as the Panthers dropped their second consecutive game.
Park Hill South senior goalkeeper Annabelle Winter, above left, and senior midfielder Olivia Gates (#4) show their emotion after letting Liberty score the game-winning overtime goal on April 9.
“Our defense and keeper had been bailing us out all game, so I’m still proud of them,” Park Hill South head soccer coach Jared Byrne said. “Sometimes it comes down to one play; it was a simple miscommunication, but the good thing is that’s something we can fix, work on and be ready for by the end of the season.”
The contest was rescheduled from an earlier date due to inclement weather and began at 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Park Hill South had a sluggish opening half – with only one shot on goal – and went into the break trailing 1-0.
“I felt like we wasted the whole first half; we came out super flat with low energy. We made a few changes, and the girls brought that energy in that second half, and I feel like we were the better team there in the end,” Byrne said.
Park Hill South was more diligent in the second half, having four shots on goal until it eventually knotted the game up in the 76th minute. Kate Hermelink connected with the back of the net on a pass from Mackenzie Wright to tie Liberty and force overtime.
“We switched up the formation, were more aggressive with it and we moved a few pieces around. We just had more energy in the second half, we came out and worked together, connected more passes and created more chances,” Byrne said.
Park Hill South was shut out for the first time this season when the Panthers fell by the same score and to the same opponent that eliminated them last offseason. Similar to the 2021 Class 4 State Quarterfinals, St. Teresa’s Academy (5-2) beat Park Hill South by a score of 2-0 when the Panthers only had 10 shot attempts all night and gave up both goals in the second half on April 6.
Park Hill South had won four of its first six games before receiving back-to-back defeats at home. The Panthers will look to get back on the winning side of things the next time they step on the field against North Kansas City (2-5) on April 15.