By LIONEL TIPTON

ANDOVER, Kansas – Derby might want to consider tangling with teams outside Butler County if it wants to keep its glossy undefeated record.

Sure, the Panthers are leading the Class 6A West with a 6-0 mark, but three of those victories have come over Butler County schools. But the only goals they have allowed were to county schools.

The latest matchup was Tuesday night, when Derby needed a goal with 41 seconds left in regulation to maintain its unblemished record with a 2-1 victory over host Andover Central.

In road games against county schools, the Panthers have edged Rose Hill, 3-2, in overtime; defeated Andover, 1-0, on a goal off a free kick; and Central on the late score.

As in the March 27 game at Andover, the Panthers and Andover Central went scoreless in the first half.

Derby got on the board first in the 59th minute and looked to be duplicating its shutout of Andover, but Central senior Sydney Gerber foiled those plans, slipping the ball past Derby senior goalkeeper Rylee Lones in the 74th minute and tying the score, 1-1.

The teams battled back and forth for the next four minutes, and, as time was ticking down, Panthers junior Harper Wintz scored off an assist from sophomore Jocelyn Lumbreras, ruining a stalwart effort by Jaguars junior goalkeeper Tori Williams, who made six saves on eight shots on goal in the game.

Derby was then able to run out the remaining time and probably feel relieved it won’t be coming back to Butler County this season. Even stranger, Derby has yet to play a home game this season and won’t have a game on its home field until next Tuesday against Goddard, the eighth game on its schedule. The Panthers, who also won the Titan Classic tournament at Wichita South, are at Wichita Northwest this Thursday.

Andover Central fell to 3-2, with its only losses by 2-1 scores at perennially tough Trinity Academy last Friday and at home to Derby, two strong teams in Classes 4-1A and 6A, respectively.

“We knew coming into this week that basically, starting with Trinity and ending with Derby (and Maize South on Thursday), it’s going to be tough. We have three games that are going to test us, and we just need to keep meeting goals that we need to meet,” Jaguars coach Stephanie Garcia said.

Thursday, the Jaguars will play host to Maize South (3-1), which has outscored its opponents in its three victories, 18-3. The Mavericks’ only loss was a 2-1 defeat at home to Goddard Eisenhower, which was unbeaten going into Tuesday’s match against Campus.

With Maize South just two days away, Garcia said her team has to cast aside Tuesday’s loss and put its attention on the Mavericks.

“Leave everything in the circle (Tuesday), and we’ll go to work (Wednesday) and make sure that we’re focused. We have things that we need to tighten up and things we need to prove. We’ll learn from our losses and hopefully take it day by day. That’s all we can do.”

Garcia said her squad has a nice balance among the grades. Central has just four seniors, who all start. But it also has seven freshmen, including three – Aubrey Michel, Allora Tiemstra and Adelyn Woods – who were in the starting lineup Tuesday night.

To lose so late in the match was heartbreaking, Garcia said.

“It’s one of our (objectives) not to allow any goals in the last five minutes of the game,” she said. “We didn’t meet that for our game (Tuesday night). Unfortunately, we let one through.”

To play teams like Derby and Trinity right down to the wire provides a key lesson for her team, Garcia said.

“They need to see that they have the ability to do great things,” she said. “Hopefully, they don’t see these two losses as ‘We lost those games’ but as ‘We were in them.’

“We’re not getting just shut out and shot down right at the beginning. We’re in it in every game. We have a young group, and they work hard. We need to keep working and keep a positive mindset – it’s all they can do.”

Garcia said she made some adjustments after the first half ended scoreless.

“I think we were able to figure out what things we needed to work on,” she said. “We knew we needed to shoot more in the second half (The Jaguars had one shot on goal in the first half). I don’t think we shot as much as we wanted to in the second half as well, but definitely some good opportunities that were missed.”

Gerber’s score really picked things up for the Jaguars, Garcia said.

“That was exciting,” she said. “We talked a lot (at halftime) about how we needed to crash, we needed to crash, just get anything on it that you could on any opportunities that we have, any corner kicks.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s any beautiful, hard, powerful shot, it’s just got to be poked in the back of the net. So, however we can get it in the net, let’s go – and they did, it’s great.”

The Jaguars, 15-2-2 a year ago, have had to replace some key seniors, but the ever-enthusiastic Garcia said it starts with returning seniors Gerber, Karlyn Wilson, Ellie Damico and Reese Fleming.

“We have an incredibly good set of seniors that are tremendous leaders,” she said. “But we do have a young team – I think I had three freshmen starting (against Derby). They’re a good group of freshmen – we have a large group of freshmen (including four more on the junior varsity).”

Goalkeeping has long been a strength at Andover Central, and Garcia has an experienced one in Williams, she said.

“She’s had some varsity experience,” Garcia said. “She played both JV and varsity the last couple of years, but she did start for us in her freshman year, because our goalkeeper (Avery Mason) was out with a back injury. So, she got some varsity starts early on, (and) now it’s her time.”

The seniors provide a good nucleus, Garcia said.

“They’re hard-working, and they love the sport,” she said. “They’ll give their all every single game. That’s why I feel like they’re good leaders.

“They won’t give up.”

Garcia said she’d like to see more life from the offense, which she said might have been a bit intimidated by Derby early on.

“We knew that our opponent was going to be difficult, and we were a little timid in our game and not confident in our play to start with,” she said. “I think that second half, after we had played them (for) a half, we realized ‘You’re in it,’ 0-0. You’re in this game, and I felt the confidence was built up more after seeing how that first half went.

“But I think we came out kind of scared.”

At the start of the game, a southern wind was blowing at 19 mph, and the Jaguars had it at their backs in the first half, as Andover opted to do against Derby in its game. Garcia said that was the right choice.

“You never know what opportunities you’re going to get,” she said. “We just definitely didn’t capitalize on the options we could have had with the wind. A lot of times, I think we do better going against the wind, because the weight of our passes get held up in the wind a bit, instead of only hitting long balls, and we’re still working on that. That’s (something) that we need to process in our game.”

Derby 2, Andover Central 1

Derby 0 2 – 2

Andover Central 0 1 – 1

Scoring

First half – No scoring.

Second half – 1. Derby, Hostetler (unassisted), 59:35. 2. Andover Central, Gerber (unassisted), 74:25. 3. Derby, Wintz (Lumbreras), 79:19.

Shots on goal: Derby (on Williams), eight shots, six saves. Andover Central (on Lones), three shots, two saves.