Platte County freshman Amelia Dzilic is hugged by Lydia Doole after she scored her first career high school goal in the 3-1 loss to Raymore-Peculiar in the Platte County Invitational on March 18.
PLATTE CITY – The host school of the Platte County Girls’ Soccer Invitational opened the season without a win through three games for the second straight year.
Platte County (0-3) was the No. 6 seed in the competitive tournament with all three games it played being against teams from a different class. St. Pius X (2-1) – a Class 2 school – defeated the home team 3-1 on March 16, scoring two goals in the second half as Lilly Kytasaari had the Lady Pirates’ lone goal in the first half.
Platte County moved to the left side of the bracket and took on Raymore-Peculiar (1-2) and lost by the same score on March 18. The game opened with Lady Panther junior Grace Vest scoring 23 seconds into the game.
“We talked about that at halftime – we don’t want to dig a hole for ourselves in the first minute of the game,” Platte County head girls’ soccer coach Ashlyn Brantley said. “Those are foundational things. We need to come out mentally prepared and focused, then have a good touch to clear the ball. Their first time coming in the back they shouldn’t be able to get a shot off and get a goal, so those are things we’ve got to come out mentally prepared for in the game.”
The Class 4 school’s lead lasted right over 16 minutes until Platte County freshman Amaya Hernandez scored her first career high school goal. Lydia Doole dished it to Hernandez about 10 yards out and after she stepped through and connected with the right foot, the ball found the back of the net to tie the game in the 17th minute.
“We knew coming into this season that we were going to have a few (girls) who were going to be competing for that top scoring position. It’s nice to see that we have someone young whose coming out and getting it done from the start. It was a really good shot, and she has some good shots at practice, so it’s nice to see that she can do it under pressure in a game as well,” Brantley said.
Platte County goalkeeper Finley Kaser and the back line made some big stops, especially in the second half when Raymore-Peculiar had 24 shots and five corner kicks. However, the Lady Panthers scored off a corner kick five minutes into the second half and put the contest away with a late goal in the 35th minute.
“We have all the confidence in Finley (Kiser), and she had a really good game. I think our shape started breaking down a little bit and they were making some good runs. We were tracking in directions that we could have held our shape a little tighter and we wouldn’t have allowed as many opportunities, but they started finding those runs and we were out of shape,” Brantley said.
Platte County finally met up with a team in Class 3 with a matchup with district opponent Kearney (1-2) on March 20. The game went into overtime scoreless and eventually went into penalty kicks.
Kytasaari and Addison Sloan both got on the board, but Kearney converted on four PKs and walked away with the win. Platte County will look to avoid the second consecutive 0-4 start at Smithville on March 27.