St. Vincent girls soccer team earns bragging rights in Perryville

PERRYVILLE -- What could have been an early Perryville goal only served to wake up St. Vincent as the host Indians, behind two first-half goals from senior Holly Blandford, held off their cross-town rivals 3-2 in girls soccer action on a balmy but breezy Thursday afternoon.

Blandford scored both her goals within about eight minutes late in the first half as the Indians improved to 6-3 on the season.

Perryville dropped to 3-4.

"Obviously Holly played a great game, along with [freshman Peyton] Triller and [sophomore] Jordin Wingerter," St. Vincent coach Keith Volansky said. "Defense, we played steadfast. It's working out real well. Everybody's coming together."

Perryville coach Jerry Fulton was missing four starters, including his goalkeeper, but refused to use that as an excuse.

St. Vincent goalkeeper Katie Mattingly protects the ball after making a save in front of Perryville’s Brooke Hogard during the second half Thursday in Perryville, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

"I think the first 20 minutes, we were setting the tone," Fulton said. "I think after that they started winning the 50-50 balls and got a lot of momentum off of that."

Fulton thought his squad took an early lead nearly eight minutes into the game when sophomore Brooke Hogard took a pass from junior Alexandria Spears and put a shot past St. Vincent goalkeeper Katie Mattingly. However, Hogard was ruled offsides and the goal was negated.

That seemed to awaken the Indians, who clamped down defensively on Perryville's attacks from the sidelines and began to pressure up the middle of the field.

That strategy led to a breakaway by Blandford, who took a pass through the middle, split two defenders and raced in on goal. Perryville goalkeeper Taylor Pingel came out and tried to beat Blandford to the ball, but the St. Vincent forward was able to punch the ball past Pingel and into the net for a 1-0 at the 12:54 mark of the half.

Minutes later, Blandford ran onto a ball some 20 yards in front of the goal, spun and lifted a high shot that Pingel couldn't reach for a 2-0 lead.

"The way we play, we [cover] the width of the field real well," Blandford said. "By us opening that, the defenders kind of followed that and it opened up the middle, and we exploited that pretty good, I thought."

Fulton acknowledged the Indians took advantage of a couple defensive miscues by his squad.

"A couple people playing not in their regular positions," Fulton said. "It's going to happen when you have that many injuries and that many starters out."

Perryville cut the lead in half when Hogard pushed the ball down the left side, turned in and curled a shot that Mattingly leaped and tipped near the far corner. The wind, though, held the ball up and it found its way into the upper corner of the net just 26 seconds before the halftime horn.

The Pirates had a couple of chances to tie the game but failed to capitalize. Spears rifled a shot from the left side that Mattingly bobbled, then dived on before the Perryville forwards could convert the rebound. Moments later, Mattingly saved a shot from the right side, and the rebound bounded near the front of the goal, from where freshman defender Sarah Gremaud cleared it as the Perryville forwards were again a split second late in tracking down the rebound.

Volansky agreed it was a key play in the game made by a freshman, one of several dotting the St. Vincent roster who are stepping up and playing well.

"Exactly," he said as his young defense survived Perryville's 13-shot onslaught. "They're doing it, and that's what I'm real proud of."

Wingerter gave the Indians some breathing room at 19:57 of the second half when she took a pass from Blandford out front and lifted a shot high past Pingel for a 3-1 cushion.

"At first I thought I was offsides, but when I knew I wasn't I got pretty excited," Wingerter said, noting that it was difficult to gauge the flight of the ball with a stiff crosswind blowing throughout the contest. "That was probably one of our main challenges here, but we were able to overcome it and we ended up winning."

Perryville's final score came with seven seconds left when junior Maria Thieret took a cross in heavy traffic in front of the goal and poked it in for the final margin.

Despite the loss, Fulton was pleased with the play from his outmanned squad that lost starting goalkeeper Miranda Stortz during Wednesday's loss at Jackson when the junior keeper possibly sustained a torn ACL in her left knee.

"I thought our keeper did great," Fulton said about Pingel, who faced 15 shots. "She did a wonderful job for being put on the spot. She made a little mistake on that first goal, coming out a little too soon, but otherwise I thought she played a good game."