Sikeston scores on itself to jumpstart Central

~ The Tigers exacted revenge for their two earlier losses to the Bulldogs.

The Sikeston girls soccer team broke through a huge obstacle this season by beating Central for the first time ever, not once, but twice.

The Tigers got a measure of revenge Tuesday as they ran away with a 5-1 victory against Sikeston in the Bulldogs' final home game of the year.

It was an uninspired effort by Sikeston, Bulldogs coach Derrick Long said.

"Cape Central wanted it more," Long said. "Every aspect of the game they wanted it more. They just outplayed us all over the field. If you're going to take two out of three against Cape Central, especially when you've never beaten them before, I'll take that. You got to put a little positive spin on it. I just wish we had a little better effort tonight."

The game had the makings of a barnburner for the first 33 minutes, but that changed when Sikeston headed a shot into its own goal.

"Anything could've changed the momentum a little bit, but heading it into our own goal really hurt us," Long said. "That's an early-year mistake. That should never happen at this point in the season. That gave them a little head start and then we gave them one with 20 seconds left in the half to put us in a bigger hole."

The Tigers' Sarah Uptmor was credited for the goal.

Central (8-12-1) took a 2-0 lead right before halftime on a shot by Abby Kiefner on an assist from Haley Pilsner.

"We're a very young team -- we only have one senior -- and I knew going into the season that scoring would be a problem for us," Central coach Tom Doyle said. "We didn't have a proven goal scorer. We've lost 12 games and 11 of them we didn't score a goal. I'm sure [Sikeston[']s own goal] was demoralizing. We've been on the receiving end of that earlier in the year, too. The ones you really feel bad for are the ones that are headed in."

Uptmor added a second goal to extend the lead to 3-0 when she lobbed a shot over Sikeston goalie Amber Minner's head at 41:00.

Laura Lusk made it 4-0 when she scored on an assist from Uptmor on a corner kick at 48:00.

Sikeston broke the shutout on Jordi Ferrell's penalty kick to make it 4-1, but the Tigers ended any potential dramatics with a fifth goal as Melissa Smith scored on an assist from Pilsner.

"Right now we're really starting to play some of our best soccer, which is good with districts starting," Doyle said. "Hopefully we're rounding into shape. This is a good win for us. The first couple games I thought we played right with them but they put the ball into the net and we didn't. Tonight our defense was strong and we played much better offensively."

Sikeston, which started the season 8-2, fell to 12-9-1 on the year.

"We're not clicking right now," Long said. "This is our ninth straight game with a different starting lineup. We don't really have any continuity going. We had a great start to the season at 8-2, but we've had injuries and trips and a lot of stuff going on -- we just haven't had our full team and we're trying to figure things out. It's getting down to crunch time."