Men's Soccer | 8/15/2021 5:32:00 PM

NEOSHO, MO- Panther Men's Soccer Wins First Preseason Scrimmage at Crowder

The Panthers men's soccer team opened their preseason with a friendly scrimmage against Crowder College Saturday evening at 5PM. The Panthers played three 30 minutes periods in a scrimmage to open up their 2021/22 season. 
The Crowder Roughriders came out of the blocks with a strong front foot, creating an excellent chance that was denied by Panthers goalkeeper Matteo Serra. The Panthers stepped up to the challenge, by creating some chances which were denied on the other end by the Crowder goalkeeper. 

In the 24th minute, the Crowder Roughriders broke through and slotted the ball past the Panthers' goalkeeper, Serra, to take the lead. The score after the first 30 minutes left the Panthers behind 1-0. 

In the second 30 minute period, the Panthers pushed on and managed to pull one back through, on a Travis Martins header from a corner kick delivered in by Sam Edwards. 

The Panthers confidence grew after tying the score and they started dictating the tempo of the game. Leonardo Menzen mustered a steal l in the midfield and scored a spectacular solo goal to put the Panthers up 2-1 in the 49th minute. After the second third of the game, the panthers led 2-1 

In the final 30 minutes the Panthers controlled the game, created three more chances, two of them hitting the crossbar. The final score after 90 minutes left the Panthers winning their first pre season game by a score of 2-1.  

Coach Chadderton's thoughts on the game: "There were a lot of positives to take from the game. It was clear that the players had a lot of nerves to start the contest, but their confidence as the game went on and they really showed their abilities. We created a lot of chances throughout the game and considering this is the first college game for a lot of these players, they bought into the game plan and executed what we had been working on in training"

The men's soccer team will travel to St Mary's (NAIA) in their next pre season game on Saturday, August 21st for their final warm up game before the season starts. 

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