Facing an upstart in their home opener, the No. 2 Neosho County Panthers men played Western Iowa Tech to a 1-1 draw on Saturday.
“I’m frustrated,” Neosho County head coach Elliot Chadderton said. “We knew what kind of game it was going to be. They’re unbeaten. They have wins over ranked teams. I knew their confidence was going to be high. We had to manage it better, especially in the first half.”
Chadderton felt the Panthers lacked urgency to push the ball upfield and get Western Iowa Tech’s defenders on their heels.
“We like to press high up the field and get numbers in their half to force their mistakes,” Chadderton said. “But we just didn’t have the energy or focus to set the traps to make sure we could expose them.”
Luke Butcher accounted for Neosho County’s lone goal in the 54th minute off a throw-in from Yuki Suzuki — Western Iowa Tech responded four minutes later with a goal off the boot of Connor Osprey.
“We’ll always be dangerous with the long throw all season,” Chadderton said. “We’ll have a lot of success with that all season. It’s harder to defend than a corner. I was definitely more disappointed with the goal we conceded right after.”
Saturday’s match was chippy on the pitch. After Neosho County’s first two matches saw their opponents go shorthanded with a red card, the Panthers were issued six yellows and a red of their own.
“We knew that was the game it was going to be,” Chadderton said. “We got dragged into it rather than setting them up to have bad discipline. That’s where our discipline wasn’t good enough.”
Zak ElHannach was issued the red card for Neosho County after engaging in a scuffle that broke out off the pitch.
“When you’re on a yellow card, you’ve got to be careful,” Chadderton said. “He got involved with the antics off the ball and when you’re on a yellow card, you can’t do that. You’ve got to be smarter. He’ll be a big miss. We’ll dig into the bench.”
After beating their first two opponents by a combined score of 10-1, Saturday’s draw felt like a setback for the Panthers.
“The guys are obviously upset, and that’s good,” Chadderton said. “We didn’t lose the game and the guys are still upset. Now we open up conference play and we can’t afford to drop games in conference.”
Up next
Neosho County, now 2-0-1 on the year, opens up Kansas Jayhawk Conference action with a local derby against Allen in Chanute on Saturday.
“We’ll see what they’re about,” Chadderton said. “We’ll regroup and go again on Saturday.”
