Denison-Schleswig sweeps Creston soccer teams

That adjustment would prove to pay off as the Panthers were able to create more breakaway-type opportunities, and Creston had success from the corners all night long off of those breakaways.

Creston head coach Ryan Kissell said this was a battle he was excited to see so that he could see where his team stands. He said that he now feels that his Panthers are closer to success than they have been in the past.

During the match, the Panthers were able to create opportunities on the offensive end with their pressure on the defensive side. Kissell made a mid-game adjustment to have his team start pressuring the Monarchs a little tighter.

That adjustment would proove to pay off as the Panthers were able to create more breakaway-type opportunities, and Creston had success from the corners all night long off of those breakaways.

Bianca Flores put a goal through for the Panthers. Her strike came unassisted on the corner kick. The other Panther goal was off of a rebound by Chloe Marlin. Marlin was able to knock it through, however that was all the offense for Creston could muster.

Maddie McCoubrie has proven to be red hot in net for the Panthers. Despite giving up three goals, she had to face 32 shots. Kissell would like to see his team play a little better defensively so McCoubrie doesn’t have to face as many shots in a game.

“One thing I know that we have to improve on is in the box. We’ve got to pressure, our defenders need to pressure,” Kissell said. “We’re giving way too many clean looks at the net. Maddie’s doing a good job in there. She went 29 saves on 32 shots, and that’s about her average right now. We’ve got to get that cleaned up. I’d like to see us get that down to about 20.”

As a new coach, Kissell is trying to help the team grow as a group and as individual players, and not having the 2020 season may have slowed that process, however he is starting to see that working on fundamentals is starting to pay off.

Even in the loss, Kissell was pleased because of how far the team has come since the opening game, and even furth since the opening day of practice. For the Panthers, he said it is now about continuing to follow that growing path and sticking to the plan.

“We’re very pleased with where we are sitting at right now,” Kissell said. “We definitely still have to improve but like I told the girls last night, ‘Hey, trust the process. We’re getting there and I know you guys see it too.’ They all agreed, they feel so much better about how they played last night compared to our two games previous.”

The Panthers are still looking at growing on the offensive end. They were able to generate opportunities but still Kissell wants to see his team take more shots than what they have been.

Through the first two games this season, the Panthers had been averaging around eight shots on goal per game. Against Denison-Schleswig, with the higher pressure and more breakaway chances, Creston was able to put 20 shots on goal.

That’s where Kissell wants to be on a consistent basis. He feels that once the team understands how to create opportunities, they will finish more of them, thus in return score more goals.

“What I noticed right away is that their style of play, they pressure you right away. We were going to have opportunities to get some breakaways and try and get some shots on goal,” Kissell said. “One thing we talked about before the game was we had to up our shots on goal to anywhere from 15 to 20. We got 21 shots on goal so I feel pretty good about that.”

As the Panthers head into their next few contests, Kissell is starting to see his team understand their roles a little better. With such a young squad that has limited experience on the varsity pitch and playing as a team, they have had to learn to play their role and not someone else’s.

Kissell thinks that they are starting to make that turn and he saw that Thursday night against Denison. Creston is still very young so learning their roles on the field early will only help them in the long run. Kissell feels that is going to happen sooner than later.

“Everybody trying to understand what their job is,” Kissell said. “They’re figuring out once we get into a rhythm here, that if everybody does their job, we’re going to be fine.

“It’s when we’re trying to go help somebody with their job or I’m trying to do something that’s not my job and we get out of placement. We’re all trying to scramble and recover, we end up in trouble.”

The Panthers return to the pitch on Tuesday when they travel to Chariton.

Panther boys fall 5-3 to Monarchs

Creston lost a 5-3 boys soccer match at home to Denison-Schleswig.

The Monarchs took a 3-1 lead before halftime while both teams were able to post two goals after the intermission.

No individual stats from the match were available before press time.

The Creston boys are idle until playing April 23 at Oakland Riverside.