Jackson sneaks past St. Vincent in soccer shootout

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- It didn't take the Jackson girls soccer team long to find out just how good St. Vincent is.

Defending Class 1 state champion St. Vincent dominated most of the first half Wednesday at the Perryville Soccer Complex.

"They outplayed us in the first half," acknowledged Jackson co-coach Justin McMullin.

Added Jackson junior Kasey Crowden: "They're very skilled, very quick off the ball."

But Jackson was able to withstand St. Vincent's first-half barrage, feeling fortunate to enter the intermission in a scoreless tie.

St. Vincent's Storm French dribbles past Jackson defender Jordan Myer, left, during the second half Wednesday in Perryville, Mo. (KRISTIN EBERTS)

The rest of the battle of Indians was fairly evenly contested. Both squads scored a second-half goal, then could not dent the nets during a pair of overtime periods.

Finally, after 100 minutes of soccer, Jackson won a penalty-kick shootout to escape with a 2-1 victory.

Jackson improved to 11-3 while St. Vincent fell to 12-2.

"We've played a good schedule, but they're definitely in the top five [teams] we've played, if not the best," said McMullin, whose Class 3 squad has won seven straight district titles. "That's as good as we've seen. They're not No. 1 in their class for no reason."

While St. Vincent coach Dustin Wengert naturally wished his Indians could have come out on top, he had no complaints about their performance.

Despite being among the smallest soccer-playing schools in Southeast Missouri, St. Vincent has proved in recent years that it can more than hold its own against the area's biggest schools.

"This was the one we probably marked at the start of the season because Jackson is the elite team in Southeast Missouri this year," Wengert said. "I thought we played our best soccer of the year.

"Penalty kicks is the worst way to lose, but this is why we schedule Jackson, Notre Dame, Perryville. It makes us better for districts and another state run."

St. Vincent had by far the best scoring chances in the first half, but Jackson senior goalkeeper Morgan Riddick and her teammates were up to the challenge.

Riddick made several solid saves, controlled her net well and also capitalized when several St. Vincent shots sailed either wide of the goal or over the top.

Jackson's best first-half save came from senior Kelsey Bierman, who was able to somehow get her right foot on a ball that had gotten behind Riddick and was just about to cross the goal line near the end of the period.

Bierman, facing the goal and with her leg extended to at least chest level, cleared the ball away at the last possible instant.

"That was a great play," McMullin said.

St. Vincent was able to create plenty of first-half chances by consistently sending long passes down the sidelines and then using its speed to track down the balls.

"We made some adjustments at halftime," McMullin said. "We tried to slow them down on the sideline and make them take the ball to the middle. They have very skilled players."

Junior Brooke Sanders took over in goal for Jackson in the second half -- the team normally rotates its keepers -- and made a great save on a breakaway just minutes into the period.

Jackson quickly picked up its pace and began to create opportunities that had been few and far between in the first half.

The visitors finally broke through about 17 minutes into the final period when Crowden's blast from about 20 yards out beat senior keeper Allison Ernst.

Sophomore Christian Johnson earned an assist with a nice pass after she had received a nifty cross from sophomore Erin Eakens.

"It was really a team effort," Crowden said of her goal.

St. Vincent got its only goal with about 15 minutes left in regulation. Sophomore Courtney Heberlie took a nice feed from freshman Holly Cissell and beat Sanders from about 15 yards out.

The regulation 80 minutes ended 1-1, as did the two 10-minute sudden-death overtime periods. So it was on to the penalty-kick shootout, with each side having five players take shots.

Jackson freshman Alex Sotak buried the first attempt of the shootout, with St. Vincent sophomore Abby Lappe answering.

Jackson then appeared to take control as junior Kylie Seyer and Crowden both scored, while St. Vincent's next two attempts missed the goal.

Up 3-1 in the shootout, Jackson had a chance to clinch the victory but Ernst made a diving save on Eakins.

St. Vincent's Kayla Seabaugh scored to make it 3-2, then Ernst again kept her side alive by stopping Bierman's shot.

But just when it appeared there would be another round of penalty kicks, Sanders moved to her right to stop senior Megan Sutterer's shot, the fifth and final attempt for St. Vincent. That sealed Jackson's win.

"I was just hoping she'd go to my right and she did," Sanders said.

Sanders' save allowed Jackson to wrap up a grueling stretch of less than 24 hours that saw the Indians beat host Notre Dame 2-0 on Tuesday night.

"We had a tough game and we knew we had to come back and play as hard as we could," Crowden said.