Late first half goal propels Panthers past Wildcats

All it took was one mistake for the Blue Springs girls soccer team to feel like its first half performance went from a mild success to a disappointment.

Trailing 1-0 at home to Ray-Pec Tuesday night, the Wildcats let the Panthers push home a goal in the final 5 minutes of the first half, take a 2-0 lead into the break and use that momentum for an eventual 8-0 win.

Blue Springs senior Bailey Hensley, left, battles for
possession with Ray-Pec's Katy Mueller during Tuesday's
home game. The Wildcats lost 8-0. 

“It all went wrong with four minutes left before halftime. It was 1-0 and we were fine,” Wildcats head coach Doug McLagan said. “But we gave up a sloppy goal.

“The name of the game for us is to stay in it as long as we can. We were just on plan and if we could have continued to do that in the second half we could have chased in the last 15 minutes, but that took the wind out of us.”

While 2-0 isn’t an insurmountable lead, Wildcats senior Bailey Hensley admitted it made the task at hand more difficult.

“It’s not like basketball where 10 points is still close,” Hensley said of the score being 2-0 compared to just 1-0. “We thought this was a team we could stay with. In the end we had a lack of experience.”

The Wildcats have already had trouble scoring this season with just three goals in five games. Throw in the fact that the teams best offensive player – Hensley – played a good portion of the game as a defender to help tighten things up didn’t help the attack.

McLagan moved Hensley up to the forward position to start the second half but a pair of quick goals by the Panthers forced her to move back to the defensive side of the ball.

“In the second half we were hoping to see if we could open it up,” McLagan said. “But if she’s (Hensley) up front and she doesn’t see the ball that’s a waste of a player.”

Blue Springs freshman Shilah Rainey and Ray-Pec's Katy
Mueller chase down the ball during Tuesday's game. 

Once the ball started rolling for Ray-Pec it was hard for the Wildcats to stop it, as the Panthers ended up scoring four goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half to put the game away.

“We’ve played some good teams and that didn’t happen,” McLagan said of the second half outburst by the Panthers. “We’ve been a strong defensive team. When you get behind you have to find three or four goals. That’s tough mentally.”

The loss dropped the Wildcats to 0-4-1, as they have had a flurry of games against some tough competition including Liberty, Kearney and Lee’s Summit West.

Add in a number of freshmen and sophomores on the field at once and it’s been a bit of a perfect storm in the early part of the season.

Blue Springs junior Beka Lowrey fights off
a Ray-Pec defender during Tuesday's game.

“We are back to the fundamentals,” McLagan said. “We’re learning defense and staying in games. I would love to attack with three forwards but we don’t have that right now.

“We’ve improved already, from game one to right now. The young girls are getting game experience.”

 The slew of younger players has put more of an onus on the veteran Hensley.

“I have a chance to make these girls better,” she said.

And she feels the younger players are the kind that want to get better and will get better as the season moves forward.

“Especially for the freshmen this is a learning experience,” Hensley said. “As bad as it sounds, it was good to get beat 8-0. We will come back harder and stronger. This year this freshmen group isn’t scared to challenge the older girls. They’re making us better. Our time will come.”