By Nathan Dunn
A sellout crowd was on hand to watch the No. 4 ranked Park Hill South Panthers girls’ soccer team smash the unranked Park Hill Trojans 6-0 in the Class 4 Sectional game on Tuesday, May 25 at Park Hill District Soccer Stadium.
The Panthers (16-3-1) are now unbeaten from their last 13 games and advance to face the No. 7 ranked St. Teresa’s Academy (15-3) in the quarterfinals on Saturday. The Trojans (13-10) end their season with their first loss to the Panthers since 2015.
The Panthers got rolling early and came close to taking the lead inside the opening minute. Instead, the Panthers settled for a goal two minutes in when senior Arley Anderson snuck in behind Park Hill’s defense and finished it past the keeper.
“We started off composed, aggressive and really just took it to them,” Park Hill South head coach Jared Byrne said following South’s win. “That just kind of set the tone for the whole game.”
PHS controlled the game from start to finish, ending the game with 71% possession and outpassing PH 309-82. Park Hill’s only shot failed to hit the target while South scored on six of their 14 shots on target.
South struck again 13 minutes in, this time from a corner kick. After the original header towards goal was cleared off the line, senior forward Adah Anderson pounced on the rebound to make it 2-0. Junior midfielder Olivia Gates also made her presence known in the first half and had a couple shots saved by Park Hill goalkeeper Lauren Woelk, who ended the game with eight saves.
Park Hill South scored a third with 19 minutes remaining in the half after the corner kick to the far post was knocked back across goal by Keegan Good and headed in for Arley Anderson’s second goal of the evening. Just a minute later, South added their final tally of the half when junior Kate Hermelink spun away from a defender and shot it past the keeper and into the left corner, making it 4-0 at halftime.
Hermelink scored again for South five minutes into the second half, sending her shot from near the penalty spot to the top corner, making it 5-0. Hermelink finished her hat trick with a third tally to her name with 19 minutes remaining in the game when she reacted first to a rebound after the previous shot hit the crossbar.
As the game edged towards a close, the Trojans got a couple bookings as senior Avery Mertz (dissent) and junior Antonia Muñiz (foul) both received yellow cards.
The contest was sold out hours before kickoff as fans were forced to purchase tickets online. PHS parents also purchased 160 of those tickets for students to attend.
“We had a lot of parental support,” Byrne said. “A lot of our parents donated tickets cause they wanted that crowd there. They donated and the kids showed up.”
Park Hill South’s next test will be against St. Teresa’s Academy on Saturday, May 29. STA enters the quarterfinal matchup on a nine-game winning streak and outscoring their opponents 34-3.
“We’ve seen them play a number of times, we know they're a good team,” Byrne said. “At this point in the year you're only going to face good teams. So we’re excited.”
Saturday will be the first meeting between these two programs since 2014, when STA won 5-1 in the Class 3 District 15 Championship.