Jackson's season ends in Class 3 soccer sectional

FENTON, Mo. -- It only took 10 seconds for the Jackson boys soccer team to realize it was up against an elite team Tuesday night in the Class 3 sectional at the Anheuser-Busch Center.

That was the amount of time the Vianney Golden Griffins needed from the opening tip for senior Jon Roeckle to rifle a 35-yard shot that Jackson goalkeeper Cody Boehme just managed to deflect over the crossbar.

The dangerous shot was only a sample of things to come -- quickly and often.

Vianney scored less than a minute later as it netted three goals in the game's first seven minutes in an 8-0 rout of Jackson.

"It's kind of been our focus," Vianney coach Dave Gauvain said. "Just come out strong, set the tone at the beginning, score early and score often."

Jackson goalie Cody Boehme reacts to Vianney's third goal in the first seven minutes of Tuesday's game in Fenton, Mo.

A skilled, physical and seasoned Vianney team did just that.

With a team boasting 16 seniors, the second-ranked Griffins were impressive as they improved to 19-6.

The loss ended Jackson's season at 18-6.

"The last game we had a bad second half and let up three goals late," Roeckle said of Vianney's district championship win against Mehlville. "We knew we had to come out and stay on top of it and get some goals because we got shut out the last half we played. We needed to come out rockin' and firin' and do the best we could."

Roeckle's opening blast set up a corner kick that resulted in the game's first goal 1 minute, 3 seconds into the game. Jackson knocked the corner kick over its end line, which resulted in a second corner attempt, taken by senior Steve McAnany.

McAnany's second attempt went to the far side of the goal, where it was headed in by senior John Howe.

"We weren't marked up real tight," Jackson coach Zack Walton said. "Things like that happened that hadn't happened to us all year. We hadn't allowed a goal on a corner kick all season."

The shocking start continued as Vianney scored on its third shot of the game just a minute later as Andy Haar, about 10 yards out in the center of the box, sent a bullet into the left side of the net on another pass from McAnany. It was one of two first-half goals by the senior.

Less than five minutes later, junior Jason Grant sent a rocket into the upper left corner off a pass from Roeckle.

"I didn't expect our team to let them shock us like they did at the very beginning," said Jackson sophomore Law Duncan, who led the Indians with 15 goals this season. "I expected us to come out a little more aggressive."

The goals were part of the 17 first-half shots that Vianney fired at Boehme, who made seven saves. Jackson countered with three shots, with Vianney goalkeeper Matt McKenna only required to make one save on a direct kick from Jackson's Tyson Stoverink.

"I'm proud of all the kids this year," Walton said. "It's obviously not the outcome we wanted, nor the outcome we thought. That definitely was not a representation of our season tonight. It was tough to swallow this one, but it's definitely not a representation of our season and the way we played all season.

"Once we got down a couple of goals right off the bat, I think our heads went down a little bit. It's always hard to battle back from three down right off the bat. And then our intensity is not there, and then things open up for them a lot easier because they're more relaxed."

Haar sent the Griffins into halftime with a 4-0 lead as he scored with about a minute left.

Vianney scored again in the first minute of the second half as Roeckle netted his team-leading 15th goal.

Boehme then deflected another shot over the top of the goal just minutes later before being lifted for Austin Baker, who yielded goals to Korey Gauvain, Zach Schuchardt and Ryan Wakeman in the final 23 minutes of the game.

"They did some nice things out there and played like the No. 2 team in the state," Walton said. "I wish them luck."

Vianney moved on to play top-ranked CBC in Saturday's quarterfinals.

The five goals against Boehme nearly matched the six he had yielded in his 16 games in the net this season.

"It's all about the level of competition we got to see tonight, and how we need to come back next year and we've got to improve," Duncan said. "We need to be playing better competition like the team we played tonight if we really want to have a chance when we come to sectionals."

And Walton wasn't letting the previous 80 minutes drown out the memories and accomplishments of his team that featured just five seniors and returns its two leading scorers in Duncan and sophomore Ryan Schlick, who finished with 10 goals.

"I'm proud of our boys this year," Walton said. "A district championship, we won our conference, we beat Notre Dame three times, and beat Cape a couple times this year. We really played well throughout the season."