St. Vincent girls soccer team uses its head in district victory over Saxony Lutheran

FESTUS, Mo. -- St. Vincent attacked through the air Saturday.

The Indians scored three goals off headers in their 8-0 victory over Saxony Lutheran in their Class 1 District 1 girls soccer semifinal at St. Pius.

"Sometimes you've got a big head and it goes where you want it to go," St. Vincent junior Courtney Heberlie said.

The Indians grabbed a 4-0 lead at halftime, and three of those goals found the back of the net off the head of a St. Vincent player.

"I don't know what happened," St. Vincent junior Kayla Seabaugh said. "We hadn't been finishing all year then all of a sudden: Bam. I don't think it's luck. We do work on those a lot, so I think that was good for us."

Heberlie scored first after Abby Lappe sent a cross into the box. Heberlie didn't hit it flush, but she got enough of the ball to steer it into the corner of the goal 6 1/2 minutes into the contest on a cold, rainy afternoon.

"The ground is slick and the ball skips across the ground," Heberlie said. "You've just got to get on top first."

Holly Blandford scored the lone first-half goal that didn't come off a header when she tapped in a rebound. Storm French gunned a shot toward the goal that Saxony Lutheran goalie Jennifer Galemmo couldn't control completely. Blandford was on the doorstep and made sure the ball got past Galemmo.

French was at it again three minutes later on a corner kick. French usually handles the Indians' corner kicks, and she sent a high ball into the box where Seabaugh blasted a header past Galemmo.

"I do try to aim," Seabaugh said. "Sometimes it goes a little haywire. It's something I've always kind of done."

The French to Seabaugh connection on corners has been paying off for three years for the Indians.

"It's not really a secret weapon," French said about the headers. "We just happened to be in the right place at the right time, I think. Last year I would kick the corner and Kayla would be there too, so we kind of know where each other is going to be at. We just got really lucky with our head balls today. We were right on."

Valerie Smith scored the Indians' fourth goal when Lappe worked her magic again. The 5-foot-5 forward sailed a cross into the box for Smith to bury.

"I don't know if we work on it as scoring options," St. Vincent coach Dusty Wengert said about Saturday's propensity for goals off the noggin. "When it happens, it looks good. They were in the position and we've stressed that a lot lately, to be in position to score. However you get it in without using your hands, I guess it doesn't matter."

French added two goals, while Blandford and Holly Cissell scored one apiece in the second half to cap the scoring.

"We knew coming in that St. Vincent was a tough team," Saxony Lutheran coach Ryan Schweain said.

The Crusaders' best chance came late in the second half when Sydney Rapp gained a little separation from the St. Vincent defense as she closed toward the goal. But Indians goalkeeper Katie Mattingly came out and made a diving kick save to knock away the ball and preserve the shutout.

The Crusaders finished their second season of girls soccer at 6-12.

"We could never get healthy this year," Schweain said. "Today, two of the starters were at track. Two are injured. All year long we just kind of limped through the season."

St. Vincent (17-4) now gets another crack at St. Pius, which defeated Hancock 10-0 on Saturday and handed the Indians a 3-0 loss April 8.

"The first game we were really just having a bad week," French said. "We lost to [Perryville] a day or two before. We just have so much motivation now and we're just ready to play them again and show them who we really are."

Wengert said he doesn't anticipate having to rein in his team's emotions before Tuesday's rematch for the district title, set for 6:30 p.m. at St. Pius.

"As far as controlling their excitement, I don't know if you can," he said. "You've just got to remind them that they were beat and they were beat pretty handily and make sure they're coming in with the right tone and the right excitement level."

St. Vincent had a chance earlier this season to avenge one of its defeats. It responded by defeating Perryville 3-1 on April 30 after losing to the Pirates 2-1 on April 7. The Indians will need to repeat that accomplishment to continue their march toward a third consecutive final four. They won the state title in 2009 and finished third last year.

"I think we're all just so ready to come back," Seabaugh said. "We're not going to let another team go to the final four. That's our mentality. We're not being cocky, but we're confident in it."