INDIANAPOLIS — Taking the pitch to open the 2025 campaign, the No. 2 Neosho County Panthers men throttled No. 20 Patrick & Henry, 7-1, and St. Louis, 3-nil, on Friday and Sunday, respectively.
“It’s obviously great to get two wins, but the way we won was really professional,” Neosho County head coach Elliot Chadderton said. “The only disappointment was being up 7-nil in the first game and conceding a goal in the last few minutes. But there were a lot of positives to take from how we played.”
In Friday’s win over Patrick & Henry, Neosho County netted a pair of goals in the first half off the boots of Miller Smith and Zak ElHannach.
In the 26th minute, Nick Merx of Patrick & Henry picked up his second yellow card to earn a red card, leaving the Panthers a man up the rest of the match and fueling a 5-1 second half.
ElHannach, Kean Hazeldine twice, Lucas Comitre and Cohen Izzard all tallied goals in the second stanza.
Patrick & Henry only tallied three shots on goal, with the third finding the back of the net.
In Sunday’s victory over St. Louis, a club receiving votes in the NJCAA Division II poll, the Panthers again got to play a man up after Kacper Zielinski of St. Louis was issued a red card in the 68th minute.
“These teams aren’t used to playing against us and our style,” Chadderton said. “We press them and we’re right up in there. They don’t recognize the way we play and it can be very frustrating. So they didn’t know what to do. Then they’re arguing between themselves.”
Callum Niven, Neosho County’s returning All-American, scored his first two goals of the campaign in the win — the first came in the first minute of the match.
“He only played the first 20 minutes in the first match, so some other guys went out there and expressed themselves,” Chadderton said.
Hazeldine added the third goal in the 71st minute for Neosho County.
“He’s got a great background in England and he was finding his feet in the preseason,” Chadderton said. “He’s scored three goals in the last two games for us, so he’s building confidence.”
Up next
Now 2-0 on the young season, Neosho County hosts Western Iowa Tech on Saturday in its home opener.
“That should be a pretty good game,” Chadderton said. “We just can’t get complacent. When you score 10 goals in two games and only concede one, it can be easy to get ahead of ourselves. But we have to keep the guys grounded. Not every game will be as easy. We’ll have tougher games. We still have that target on our back, especially after the opening weekend.”
