Perryville boys soccer team blanks Notre Dame, claims 4th straight district title

The Perryville boys soccer team is back in the Class 2 state bracket.

The defending state champion Pirates got a big boost from freshman Cole Gerstenberger, who netted a pair of goals to lead top-seeded Perryville to a 2-0 win over second-seeded Notre Dame on Friday in the Class 2 District 1 championship at Notre Dame Regional High School.

"At the beginning of the season, we come together as a team and set down goals for the season that we want to accomplish. Of course, winning your district, winning your conference -- those are things we want to accomplish," Perryville coach Jerry Fulton said. "You like to think you can set that as a goal, and then work to achieve that goal. We take a gameplan approach, one game at a time, and these guys have bought into the system and the way to do that."

Gerstenberger scored his first goal about 10 minutes into the game, blasting the ball from 20 yards out into the left corner of the net on a pass from Pablo Mattingly. He added his second goal at the 22:01 mark of the first half, another 20-yard shot, this time into the right corner of the net on a pass from Eann Bergman.

"We lost a lot of talent from last year. There's no secret to that. We graduated nine seniors from that state championship team, so to get a freshman like Cole to come into the program and to be as trained and as disciplined and as athletic as he is, it's been huge for this team," Fulton said. "The guys accepted Cole right away into the ranks, and he's just really been playing at the top of his game."

Goalkeeper Trent Unterreiner had seven saves in the shutout for the Pirates, who improved to 21-4 and won their fourth straight district crown. Fulton was pleased with the way his defense played in clinching the district title.

"We score goals, but our defense has been huge," Fulton said. "We had a great defense last year that only gave up 13 goals all season, but this team has only given up 16 this year. Dylan Jannin back there at sweeper, I don't think you'll find a more technical, solid kid around."

The Pirates advanced to the title game after a 10-0 rout of fourth-seeded Fredericktown on Thursday that ended the Black Cats' season at 3-16.

Second-seeded Notre Dame edged third-seeded St. Pius X 1-0 to advance. The Bulldogs wrapped up their season with a record of 13-11-1 while the Lancers finished at 12-8-1.

Perryville will host Hancock Place on Tuesday in the first round of sectional play. The Tigers edged Bayless 2-1 in double overtime to win the Class 2 District 2 title on Friday in the suburban St. Louis area.

"We talked about how we wanted to celebrate the district championship last night, and we're going to take a couple days off," Fulton said. "Our guys are a little sore and beat up after two hard-fought games. Monday, we'll get right back at it.

"We realize last night was just a step in the direction we want to go, and we're now focused on Hancock for Tuesday."