Perryville soccer season ends in quarterfinals

~ The Pirates lost to St. Mary's 3-1 in a Class 2 playoff game

ST. LOUIS -- Valiant efforts do not victors make, as the Perryville soccer team painfully learned on a blustery, overcast Saturday afternoon in St. Louis.

The Pirates fell 3-1 to St. Mary's is a Class 2 state quarterfinal to finish their season with a 25-5 record, one win shy of a final four appearance.

St. Mary's (14-10-1) scored two first-half goals then tallied the only second-half score to eliminate Perryville from the postseason and secure a berth in the Class 2 state tournament later this week in Kansas City.

"This is the best team I've ever had," a visibly disappointed Perryville coach Jerry Fulton said after the game. "I'm still very proud of every one of them."

The Pirates scored first in the ninth minute on a set piece. Junior midfielder Matt Moran crossed a corner kick high to the far post, where fellow junior Luke Schlichting outjumped his defender and sent a header back to the front of the goal. Juan Hernandez muscled his way between defenders and somehow got a foot on the ball, sending it past St. Mary goalkeeper Zachary Lauer to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

"The kick went to the far post, and [Schlichting] got it, and I just hit it and it went in," said Hernandez,a senior. "It was at the very beginning of the game, so that was pretty good."

"The start was exactly what we wanted," Fulton said. "We wanted to lead early, and we got it.

"Unfortunately, we left a couple guys unmarked, and it cost us."

St. Mary knotted the score in the 32nd minute when junior forward Trevor Kaufmann ran under a long wind-blown pass from sophomore Jonathan Flowers. After a couple high bounces, Kaufmann controlled the ball, eluded two defenders and beat Pirates keeper Luke Dobbelare in front of the net to tie it at 1-1.

Then, with just over two minutes to play in the first half, St. Mary junior midfielder Brendan Kopff took a long throw-in from deep along the sideline, then spun and fired a powerful shot past Dobbelare to put the Dragons up 2-1.

As pivotal as the goal was, what happened next was even more frustrating for the Pirates. Seconds before halftime, Schlichting crossed to sophomore forward Emilio Mattingly at the far post, but Mattingly's point-blank shot was deflected at the last second by a diving Lauer. Mattingly recovered to send another cross in front of the net, but a St. Mary defender was able to clear it with a header as the half ended.

"When they got the second goal, and we missed that last opportunity right there before the half, I thought that was huge," Fulton admitted. "I thought if we could have tied it up going into the second half, we had a real good shot. Unfortunately, we came up on the short end today."

St. Mary coach Jeff Robben concurred.

"Absolutely. That was a momentum-changer," Robben said. "They get that goal, now they got momentum and they're flying around. You could kind of see their sails kind of go flat a little bit after that because that was a huge opportunity for them. Zach just came up big time."

The wind -- blowing steady from goal to goal throughout the game -- was a big factor all day long. Perryville played into the wind in the first half and had problems winning the ball in the air. St. Mary's speed and quickness continually denied the Pirates from playing a possession game and successfully moving the ball down the field.

"That was crucial. It was key to the game for us was to not let them get set up," Robben said. "They're an awfully skilled team. They play well together. ... They won an awful lot of balls out of the back, and they did a real nice job of collapsing on our two forwards in the middle of the field. But once we started getting the ball wide a little bit, that helped."

The Pirates, with the wind at their backs in the second half, saw several chances to tie the score slip away. Perryville earned a corner kick in the opening minute of the second half, but Hernandez, in traffic, couldn't get a foot on Moran's cross before it was cleared away. Later, junior midfielder Kyle Wood chipped a ball that bounced high over Lauer's head, and the Dragons' goalie had to backtrack and cover the ball near the line past the far post. Midway through the half, Emilio Mattingly tried running onto a long ball on the left side, but a sliding Lauer barely beat him to the ball at the top of the box.

Perryville's best chance to tie came in the 82nd minute when Moran drew a tripping foul about 30 yards out. His free kick was a low roller that nearly got past Lauer, who smothered it before it could reach the far corner.

With just under six minutes left in the game, Dobbelare slid to his left to block a shot, but Kaufmann controlled the rebound and lifted a short cross to senior midfielder DaShawn Wilson, who was all alone in front of an open net. Wilson's goal made it 3-1 and effectively ended the contest.

"I guess we just didn't have our minds in the game," Wood said. "We didn't come out as focused as we needed to. We strike first, and then we just couldn't keep the ball out of our end, and they just capitalized on it."

The Pirates lose just two seniors -- Hernandez and reserve forward Kyle Beckmeyer -- so the possibility of taking that final step to the final four seems to be within their grasp.

"The last two years, we've gotten a step [closer]," Fulton said. "Of course, there's no guarantees we get back here next year. We're in one of the toughest districts in the state, and anybody out of that district could win this thing. We're going to come back next year, and I think the guys will be focused to try to do that, and win that district and get back here."