By Derek Shore (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
If you walked into the gymnasium at Neosho High School, you can see the girls soccer team’s first-ever district championship banner hanging up from this past spring following a 17-7 overall record in 2017 (6-2 in COC Large play).
Well, entering this spring, expectations remain at an all-time high for Neosho which returns almost all of their team from last season.
The Lady Wildcats head coach Steve Schnackenberg certainly didn’t hold back when asked about this upcoming season.
“In 2018, we want to find a way to move up in the COC standings and improve our overall record,” Schnackenberg said. “Repeating as district champions and giving this big senior class a chance to make it to the state tournament.”
That said, Neosho does lose an integral part of their success from last year with the graduation of four-year starter and a three-year leading scorer (career 99 goals) in Alicia Cooper (forward), who earned first-team honors in the All-COC, All-District, and All-Region as a senior.
On the other hand, the Lady Wildcats welcome back a whopping 13 lettermen total which includes nine starters from a team that was eliminated by Bolivar in the sectional round of the state tournament.
The returnees will headlined by senior Ashley Talley, a first-team All-COC midfielder, who scored a team-high 30 goals and dished out 12 assists in 24 games as a junior last spring.
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“Ashley has great vision and control of the team,” Schnackenberg said. “She is skilled with good speed. We will look for Ashley to repeat her 30 goal season from last year and find other scoring opportunities.”
Another key returnees will be Laken Schnackenberg, a first-team All-COC forward, who had 12 goals and assists last year.
“Laken is technical and fast,” her coach said. “She will need to up her goal total this year and continue to get people scoring chances.”
The strong senior class will be rounded out by Ashley Weems (defender), Emily Velasco (midfielder), Karla Vargas (midfielder), Alex Houk (midfielder), Kayleigh Vaughn (forward), and Emily Kivett (midfielder).
“Ashley is skilled and has a great work ethic,” Schnackenberg said. “She will have the two roles of leader in the defense yet we will need her in the attack to hold the ball in and find ways to score. Emily is an experienced, skilled and hardworking player. She will plays in a defensive mid role for us and does a great job linking the ball from our defense to our mids and forwards. She may find herself more in the attack this season.”
Schnackenberg described Vargas as a physical player, who has great vision and is defensive minded. She will continue to defend first and create turnovers in the middle third. Houk is also skilled and experienced coupled with her versatility. She will need to continue to help the Lady Wildcats with her excellent passing and find more scoring chances when in the attack.
Vaughn possess speed and is aggressive which causes problems for other teams defenses which Neosho will look for her to do more this season. Kivett is athletic and physical, but is new to soccer. She stepped in wherever the Lady Wildcats needed her last spring, finding ways to help the team in any way possible and will look for a permanent role this season.
The remaining returnees include juniors Brooklynn Hughes (midfielder), Madelyn Enlow (defender), and Taylor Baker (defender). Hughes has the most varsity experience of the group after posting 15 goals and five assists as a sophomore last spring.
“Brooklyn is a hard worker, skilled, and fast,” Schnackenberg said. “We moved her out of the back last season and she had an impact in the attack. Brooklyn wants the ball and finds ways to score and will need to continue that this season. Madelyn is a skilled, smart defender. She will continue to work in the outside and center defender roles. Her 1v1 defending is great and she distributes the ball well.
“Taylor is fast and aggressive. She came in fairly new to soccer and made a quick impact for us. She defends well and continues to improve with experience. She will anchor our defense this year.”
Schnackenberg also listed four top newcomers to watch out for in senior Kylie Ropp (forward), junior Amber Shepeard (defender), as well as sophomores Abby Gilliam (forward) and Angie Rodriguez (midfielder).
Ropp creates a lot of opportunities to score on her own and will look to make an impact offensively for Neosho. Shepeard is a strong and fast defender, learning to play in the center back. She was a good leader on the JV team last year and will look to step in and do the same on varsity for the Lady Wildcats.
Gilliam, a skilled and fast player, led the JV in goals last year and has worked in the offseason on finishing, hoping to showcase that this spring on the varsity level. Rodriguez, described as speedy and tactical, does a great job of using the whole field and learning her position. She will make an impact out wide this year.
“With so many returning players, I feel like we can do a better job making adjustments during the games and work on finding more ways to create scoring opportunities (this season),” Schnackenberg said. “We will re-adjust our back line a little, so that process will be something we spend a lot of time on early in the season. With Alicia graduated, we will have to have some girls step up in the scoring column and our attack will have to be more organized.
“I’m excited to see how we adjust to these changes. The players we have are capable of making these adjustments so it should be a different look and feel for us.”
Neosho opens the season at Hillcrest on March 20.
