Perryville girls rally past Poplar Bluff

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The Perryville Lady Pirates have had a knack for playing from behind in recent games. This time, they spoiled a Senior Night in the process.

The Lady Pirates came from behind twice and netted all of their goals in the second half for a 4-2 win at Poplar Bluff Monday evening.

Perryville coach Jerry Fulton immediately looked back at a game two weeks ago that was similar to the one with the Lady Mules.

"We did the same thing at Sikeston," Fulton said of an April 23 game. "Except for we spotted them three goals before we decided to come back."

The Lady Pirates (12-8) won that one 4-3 and Fulton explained that Mondays haven't always been their best games.

"This team hasn't played well on Mondays all season," Fulton said. "And I don't know why. I pretty much chewed them out at halftime."

Poplar Bluff (4-16) snapped a 5-game goal-less streak with just 35 seconds left in the first half.

Sophomore Kori Tapp started a run down into the left corner. She centered a ball towards the goal that a Perryville defender inadvertently kicked on net. It hit the post.

The Lady Mules kept after it though and Tapp was rewarded a few seconds later as she sent a ball from the right side that squeezed past the left post and into the net for her third goal of the season.

"She played very well," Poplar Bluff coach Rusty Crafton said of Tapp. "She followed it up real well and did what she was suppose to do. She got a nice goal there."

Fulton was stung by a goal being scored that late in half.

We had clearly controlled most of the game at that point," he said. "I think they had three or four chances but to get one with 35 seconds left to go in the half was very disappointing."

After Perryville put a ball off the crossbar in the first and one off the post early in the second half, it finally broke through to tie the game with 17:34 to play.

Senior Kaitlyn Ellsworth put in a free kick from the left corner that went across the goal mouth and in.

The lead was short lived though.

Just 1:01 later, the Lady Mules regained the lead.

Poplar Bluff Karisa Coleman accepted a pass down the right sideline from freshman Destiny Wallace. Coleman beat her defender and shot it wide left of Perryville goalkeeper Miranda Stortz and into the corner of the net.

There was a general feeling from the Perryville sideline of Coleman being offsides but the goal stood.

"It was a beautiful play," Crafton said. "I thought Coleman got back on time. I didn't think she was offsides. She played it real well and scored right there."

The goal was Coleman's team-high seventh of the year.

That lead wasn't safe either for the Lady Mules.

Perryville re-tied the game three minutes later as Brooke Hogard slammed in a ball from Natalie Gremaud to make 2-2.

The tie game stood until Allison Moldenhauer centered a pass to Gremaud who finished to take a 3-2 lead with 3:29 left.

"We played Farmington last week to a 4-3 loss and it was just the reverse last week," Fulton said. "It was (Gremaud) to (Moldenhauer) and she finished. All year long, those two are the best combination I've had in years."

The Lady Pirates then slammed the door with 1:33 left as Gremaud picked up her second assist of the night with a pass to Alexis Sutterer who put the game out of reach.

"I thought we had the lead, we had momentum and we gave up two quick goals and we just ran out of time," Crafton said. "Couple of mishaps there and it's just unfortunate on Senior Night."

Courtney Raulston made 14 saves in net for Poplar Bluff while Stortz made two for Perryville.

"I stressed that we need to be doing the things that we do and they've been a second-half team all year long where they come on strong," Fulton said. "Hopefully they can continue that into districts next week."