Nailing down their first victory of the season in their home opener, the Neosho County Panthers women shut out Western Iowa Tech, 2-nil.
“I’m overall pleased,” Neosho County first-year head coach Sam Hall said. “I still think we have things to build on. But we came out and did exactly what we knew would be successful. Halftime came and that slowed us down a bit. I wanted to maintain our own standards no matter what the score is. But they didn’t threaten us too much and we snuffed out the threats they had.”
Neosho County netted both of its goals in the first half.
Mia Ferioli found the back post from the left side after slithering through Western Iowa Tech’s defense in the 25th minute.
“It was brilliant. She got behind the defender and found a point we wanted to expose,” Hall said. “She’s crafty and can get between people. It was a great finish on top of that.”
Melissa Riley delivered the highlight of the day, finding the back of the net in the top right corner from 50 yards out in the 37th minute.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Hall said. “She’s a great striker and I want her to be in those positions to take those shots. I knew that’s a weapon we could use. She was able to get freed up in the middle and it was a fantastic shot.”
While Neosho County blanked their opponents, the Panthers only netted two of its 11 shots on goal.
“We’ll play against harder teams and those chances will lessen,” Hall said. “When you get chances, you have to be ruthless. We have to convert. We tried to walk the ball into the goal. But we have to put pressure on the ball.”
Up next
Neosho County, now 1-2 on the season, opens up Kansas Jayhawk Conference action with a local derby against Allen in Chanute on Saturday.
“We have to take the experiences from the opposition we’ve played,” Hall said. “It’s been fantastic for us. It sets us up for the season. We can use the standards from that and take it into conference play.”
