Central crushes Perryville 7-1 in conference tilt

Central's Zach Zaruba has had more opportunities to score goals the past four games after being moved from midfielder to striker.

And he has scored often.

During that stretch, the senior has netted 10 goals, including two Wednesday to help Central rout SEMO Conference opponent Perryville 7-1 at Central High School.

"I've done well the past few games," said Zaruba, who primarily had played center-midfielder since moving to Cape Girardeau from North Carolina when he was 11 years old. "It's been working out for us."

Zaruba was one of six Central players to score against Perryville (14-4).

The Tigers (12-6) dominated early and often, scoring twice in the first 16 minutes and firing 19 shots at Perryville freshman goalie Cody Call during the contest.

"Every chance we got the ball wide and won the in-line," Zaruba said. "Every cross we had we finished. That's a plus. It was one of our better games. We played a weaker team today, but we'll play some tougher competition in the future. We just need to stay strong up there.

CHUCK WU ~ cwu@semissourian.com Perryville's Richard Mattingly works to move the ball down the field during the second half Wednesday at Central.

"They are not a bad team," Zaruba added about Perryville. "I think they got caught up in the hype of playing Cape Central. They didn't possess very well tonight."

Perryville coach Jerry Fulton had no comment about the way his team played.

"I'm just not really in a good mood," Fulton said.

Central goalie Carlos Salas saw six shots, stopping five.

Central's Jared Kinder takes control of the ball from Perryville's Alex Robinson during Wednesday's game.

Lucian Johnson, Michael Denmark, Dillon Huber, Zach Ray and Cole Viers each scored one goal for Central.

Zaruba now has 18 goals this fall.

"He's on 12 goals in six games," Central first-year coach Dan Martin said of Zaruba. "He's come a long way. He's worked for every one. He works hard going to get the ball, distributing the ball and then getting the ball back. He's one of our captains. He's a good kid all around."

Martin said Zaruba is a big reason why his offense was so strong against Perryville.

CHUCK WU ~ cwu@semissourian.com Ryan Bert goes up in the air for a header over Central's defender Jesse Hurt.

"A lot of that is attributed to Zach and our midfielders," Martin said. "They just played well, and tonight they finished. Perryville is a first-year program and a little bit weaker, but we finished all our chances."

Johnson said Zaruba had played with him in the midfield for approximately the past six years before Zaruba was switched to striker.

"It's a tough loss for me because I'm used to playing with him, but it's also a great thing because our defenders and our midfielders can look for him to hold the ball," Johnson said. "And for our team to move as a unit up the field and transition to offense, he holds the ball really well and he gets great shots. I believe tonight he definitely could have had some more goals than what he had just because he didn't take the opportunities he had to shoot instead of releasing the ball to another player."

Central led 3-0 at halftime. The Tigers scored two more goals in the first 8 minutes of the second half to lead 5-0.

Martin said he thinks his defense also played well, reducing Perryville's looks on offense.

"We held them down to five shots, and our backs really did well," Martin said. "And then we put in some substitutions. We gave up a goal in the last 2 minutes, but that's normal. We're trying to get everybody some playing time. ... The good positive is that we're 3-0 in conference. We came out and made sure we kept that undefeated record. We just have to move on. We have a game Saturday afternoon against Northwest and we have to put them away on our home field again."