Panther Soccer Explodes in Second Half To Remain Undefeated

Mehlville boys soccer coach Tom Harper called it gut-check time as he finished his halftime speech Wednesday night at Kirkwood.

His Panther team trailed 2-1 at halftime against the Pioneers but answered the challenge in a very positive way. Mehlville scored four goals in the second half to defeat Kirkwood 5-2 and remain unbeaten in their first three games of the 2011 season.

"We came off two dominant wins and we got a dose of reality in the first half tonight," Harper said. "It was our first 80-minute test of the season. We were average at best in the first half, but they responded very positively in the second half.

"Anybody who watched that second half got an eyeful of what we were capable of. We have a lot of firepower on this team and they showed it in the second half."

Aris Nukic, who scored four goals in a win against Seckman, added three goals, all in the second half, against Kirkwood.

Nukic had an assist on the game's first goal, a header by Emir Alihodzic, just nine minutes into the game.

But Kirkwood was able to score twice the rest of the first half. Clayton Shead scored midway through the half and Eric McWoods scored with just a minute to go.

"They caught us sleeping in the first half," said Panther junior back Ricky Crabtree. "We wanted to attack too much and we needed to do a better job of possessing the ball.

"We showed what we could do in the second half and that is play with anybody. We can be state contenders."

Nukic tied the game eight minutes into the second half on a nice feed from Nijaz Muratovic.

Faik Hajderovic, who had been frustrated on several scoring chances during the game, would score the eventual game-winner with 12:27 to play.

Nukic would add an insurance goal a minute and a half later and then closed out the scoring with two minutes left.

"We played good organized defense in the first 40 minutes," said Kirkwood coach Chris Steinmetz, whose team fell to 1-3 for the season. "We made some basic soccer mistakes in the second half and they took advantage. I thought we did a good job of creating chances throughout the game. They just did a better job of finalizing their chances."

Mehlville gets another test as it competes in the Francis Howell North Tournament this weekend. The Panthers play Friday at Francis Howell and will face Howell North and Howell Central in the tournament.

See more photos from the game on our Facebook page.