The first half was scoreless for the Chieftains, as Eudora maintained possession of the ball the majority of the time and controlled the overall flow of the game.

“We weren’t used to the field size,” coach Ken Lott said about the Chieftains’ slow first half. “We have a much larger field and have more room to work with.”

Tonganoxie did not make an appearance on the scoreboard until well into the second half, when they were trailing by four goals. With the assist by Alex Nowasell, Jake Poterbin nudged the ball past Eudora goalkeeper Anthony Barta.

Poterbin made the second and final goal for Tonganoxie minutes later, shooting from the left corner of the field and banking the ball off the goal’s crossbar.

After Eudora saw the ejection of its assistant coach Paul Thevarajoo and three yellow cards to different members of the team, the game ended with Eudora winning 5-2.

Lott said he was happy with the team’s work ethic during the game, but the team just could not seem to pull things together as it should have.

“Our guys didn’t seem to get to the ball when we needed to,” Lott said. “We had a few misjudged balls, but we were persistent and fought hard.”

In all, Lott said the primary reason Tonganoxie lost was because of Eudora’s more effective and sharper combination passes.

After only winning one game during the season, junior Josh Nowasell said he was disappointed about ending the season on a sour note.

“I’m more upset for the seniors because they had a good game,” Nowasell said. “Some of our underclassmen did not step up and do the same. Hopefully next year we’ll have more experience on the field.”

Lott said overall, the team was fairly disappointed with how the season went and how it ended. Both teams entered the first round of the tournament only having won one game, so Lott said the loss made it even harder on the Chieftains.

“The season did not have many highs, and there were a lot of frustrations,” Lott said. “I think everybody wanted to send the seniors off with a better season overall.”

Despite the sour taste in the Chieftains’ mouths, Lott said the team played well against the Cardinals Monday evening.

“We played hard the whole game,” Lott said. “There’s just not much you can do when the ball doesn’t bounce the right way. It’s obvious we have a young team, and they wanted the win just a little more than we did.”