Seniors shine in Cape Central's 8-0 win over Fredericktown

Preston Schlichting scored five goals to lead Cape Central to an 8-0 win over Fredericktown on Wednesday at Cape Central High School.

“It’s great because our team, we work together well and we know a pattern we like to play with,” Schlichting said. “Whenever they all feed it to me and we can tuck it away, it feels good.”

The last time Schlichting scored this many goals during a game was last year during an 8-0 win over North County. This type of scoring output has led to unlimited confidence in the senior, who feels every time he takes a shot toward the goal, it goes in "almost every time”.

“I’m better than the majority of any high school soccer players," Schlichting said. "I know if I place it well, it will go in.”

Schlichting has been the main goal scorer for the Tigers this season. Highlights included scoring a hat trick in a 3-0 win over Saxony Lutheran on Oct. 2 and scoring two goals to push the Tigers past Notre Dame 2-1 on Oct. 10.

“If we didn’t have up on offense it would be a struggle to score,” Schlichting said. “If I didn’t have them we wouldn’t score either. You gotta have all of us together so we can play the offensive players.”

Cape Central senior defender Alexander Godbey ended the game with his first goal of the season. The other goals came from sophomores Landon Koehler and Joesph Cao, who combined for eight shots on goal.

"It felt like a big accomplishment for me," Godbey said. "It's way more fun to play offense than defense but I'll do anything to help the team win."

The Tigers played seven games at home so far this season and have won four of them, including a recent 2-1 victory over their rival, Notre Dame.

“Playing at home is a big advantage for us because we're obviously comfortable here," Godbey said. "I've been here for four years and so it's just being able to know our field, know the width of the field. Spreading out wide usually helps us a lot in getting goals."

The Tigers started the season 1-2-1 leading up to their first home game of the season. Since then the Tigers have played .500 ball the rest of the way.

“When we started, we had a lot of problems with team chemistry,” Schlichting said. “We didn’t have a lot of playing time together. It’s a younger team. We’ve only played together mainly this season. Last year we lost a lot of seniors. Now towards the end of the season, we’re more comfortable with each other’s play and we can find each other’s patterns and get wins.”

At 7-7-1, this year has been a clear dropoff from the previous year's team that went 19-4-1. However, as the Tigers are getting closer to the Class 3 District 1 Tournament, they are increasingly confident that they could get as far or better.

"I think we can honestly win all of our games up to hopefully our district championship," Godbey said, "At the beginning, we struggled a little bit but now that we're close to the postseason, we're just all locking in, and getting ready to win."

The Tigers travel north to take on Perryville (11-7) on Thursday and then close out the regular season at home against DeSoto (2-11) on Oct. 26 for senior night.

"It's gonna be a little bittersweet," Godbey said, "but it's gonna be a fun game because I might be able to get another goal against that team."

“The seasons have gone by fast,” Schlichting said. “It will kind of hurt a little bit to play my last home game but it’s a great four years here. I’m happy to have another senior night with them.”