Box Score CHANUTE, Kansas: Neosho County had the upper hand on Friday night, as they collected an 8-2 victory over Dodge City at their home pitch.
The Conquistadors outshot Neosho 25-17, but NCCC was able to capitalize on their opportunities for the win.
"We weren't us today," commented head coach Tim Romanello. "Mentally we know what's at stake, we recognize what we have to do--what we do well and what we don't--but for some reason, it just doesn't click right now."
"The link of our mental capacity and skill ability is concerning. We gave up five one-versus-one first-half goals to dig ourselves a ginormous hole, then dominate the entire second half with less defenders."The home team went up 5-0 in the first half and added their sixth goal early in the second before Dodge was able to find the back of the net.
"Neosho gave proof that possession, dominating play isn't necessary to compete. All you have to do is create a chance, convert it and repeat that formula. We had a number of chances, maybe more than they did, but the score doesn't show that," continued Romanello. "The only thing people see is that we lost 8-2 to a team that we should have beaten. But you don't get points for playing 'coulda-woulda-shoulda', you get points for scoring more goals than the other team."
In the 73
rd minute,
Erica Ramos put the opening Conq goal past the Neosho goalie to start closing the gap, but Neosho was quick to add another goal on the board.
Kayla Turner scored their Conqs last goal in the 81
st minute and NCCC put up another before the 90:00 mark, resulting in an 8-2 Neosho County win.
Both
Jessica Klemetson and
Erica Ramos put in four shots on goal throughout while
Kayla Turner,
Kristina Trinceri and
Rachel VanBuskirk added two each. Neosho put in 14 saves to keep the Conqs at only two goals on the day.
"It's disappointing, because we are better than this. The girls are painting a false image of themselves to the conference. They have proven they can compete with the top half of the conference," finished Romanello. "They don't belong in the bottom half, on the outside of the playoff picture. But that's where we are, and I can't change that. What we can change is our desire, our intensity, our urgency." Dodge dropped to 7-5-1 overall and 3-5-1 in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference after the match result.
