LADY TIGERS SUFFER LOSS IN 4A SECTIONAL

FENTON -- Despite a valiant late rally Tuesday evening, the Cape Girardeau Central High girls soccer team could not duplicate its playoff magic of last season.

As a result, the Lady Tigers are through playing for the 2000 campaign as Hazelwood Central claimed a 2-1 victory in a Class 4A sectional game at the Anheuser-Busch Conference & Sports Centre.

Hazelwood Central's Hawks move on to Saturday's state quarterfinals with a 19-9-2 record.

Cape Central, which advanced to the 4A Final Four last year for the first time ever, finishes another highly successful season with a 19-7-1 mark.

"They were beatable," lamented Cape Central coach Tom Doyle. "They probably had more skill than we did, but we had good opportunities. We just didn't play the game we should have. Passing is our game, but we booted the ball too much."

Although the Hawks appeared to control much of the play and had by far the better of the scoring opportunities, the Lady Tigers were able to make things interesting late after falling behind 2-0.

With about five minutes remaining in the contest, a Hazelwood Central defender went down with an injury, which helped the Lady Tigers get a clear scoring opportunity and Trisha Klipfel deposited the ball into the net, with Amber Voerg earning an assist.

All of a sudden, the Lady Tigers were within a goal and their vocal group of supporters had plenty to cheer about.

With just over two minutes remaining, Cape Central had a decent chance at the tying goal as Ashlie Voerg sent a nice corner kick to her twin sister, but Amber Voerg headed the ball wide right.

That was basically it for the Lady Tigers as the Hawks celebrated on the same field that had been the site of a Cape Central sectional victory last season.

"I thought we played a good, physical game," said Hazelwood Central coach Dean Schulenburg. "We've seen that several times the last couple of weeks. Cape Central had some physical players and we knew they'd be tough."

Hazelwood Central grabbed a 1-0 lead with about 12 minutes left in the first half as Katie Maier scored, with an assist from Amanda Ellis.

Ellis made several nice moves on the left side of the goal as she avoided a couple of Cape Central defenders before sliding a pass to Maier in the middle. Maier was able to slip a low shot past goalkeeper Heather Hey.

The score was 1-0 at halftime, then the Hawks scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal with about 27 minutes left in the second half. A shot by Valerie Henderson hit the crossbar and rebounded right to Christina Bologna, who put it past Hey for a 2-0 lead.

That's the way things stood until the Cape Central rally that fell a bit short.

Although she did not figure into any of the goals, Hazelwood Central got a big boost from standout junior midfielder Marla Gianino, who was a major force with her deft ballhandling, passing and defense.

"It's nice to have Marla healthy," Schulenburg said. "She's been fighting a leg injury the whole season and she's really just now getting to where she's close to 100 percent. She's really a good player."

Looking back on the season, Doyle said the Lady Tigers were able to meet some of their goals, but they fell short of some others.

"We won conference and district, which was good, but a lot of our goals were built on this game today, so we fell short of some of them," he said.

Although they lose several talented seniors, the Lady Tigers figure to be a major force again next season as they return a host of starters, including career and single-season scoring leader Amber Voerg, who tallied 31 goals this year.

"We lose some very good players, but we've got some really good ones coming back," Doyle said. "The future looks good, but it all depends on how hard they want to work."