BV North @ Top Dawg 28 Sept (3-0)

GAME 9: vs. BV North @ Top Dawg 28 September

We finished off the Top Dawg very well, shutting out a very good BV North team that came into the tourney nationally ranked and 5th overall in Kansas.  But this tourney is not for the faint at heart. It featured 4 very good squads who any of the 4 could have gone 3-0 and any of the 4 could have gone 0-3.  North went 0-3.

The BWhite Player of the Match (and this was a little tricky as B did not make the game as he has the flu, but was getting a pretty ongoing update) was Colton Ropson who had the hat trick: 2 goals and one bloody nose. He actually finished a goal from the field off a great low t-ball and a dummy. Great stuff. More importantly, he defended well in the middle of the field.

We coaches thought we got better as a team as the tourney went on. This was an important set of games for us.  And is the tradition at the Top Dawg, they always name 3 players for each team to the ALL TOURNEY TEAM.  I really thought we had more than 3 deserving, and that says a lot. To have 3 quality matches in a row is not easy to do. But congrats to Tyler Stoecklein, Nick Hagenkord and Matthew Holland as they were our 3 named to the team.

22 guys played for us tonight. That felt good. I did think that we continued to look fresh throughout the match. So getting good, quality minutes off the bench  keyed that energy. 

We now head to the Gateway Classic.  We are playing our best soccer of the year right now, but believe me, we will need to be to compete in this thing.  

St. Louis here we come!

STATS:  

First Half:  STA: Shots: 7 (2) Corners: 1

13:23 Hagenkord (2-man corner allows Velasco's back post cross for the header)
4:42 Ropson (Long throw creates a chip back on by Johnston)

BV North: Shots: 1 (0) Corners: 1

Second Half: STA: Shots: 11 (3) Corners: 4

11:48 Ropson (Kutey t's it through the Skevington dummy)

BV North: Shots: 4 (2) Corners: 0

Corners Created: Kutey 2, Geist, Velasco, Johnston
Shots: Hagenkord 3, Brown 2, Ropson 2, Stoecklein 2, Kutey 1, Younger 2, Heying 2, Feuerborn, Schiltz, D'Adamo, Martin

Saints vs The Rock at Top Dawg 25 September (1-0)

Game 8 vs. Rockhurst at Top Dawg 25 September

Make that two straight for the good guys as our defense put on another nice show to shutout Rockhurst on a beautiful Wednesday night in front of another great soccer crowd. (We were missing the Rockhurst football team as I understand that they abstained in protest of recent Rockhurst administrative choices.)

This game did not offer up much flow unless you like pass, pass, foul; pass, pass, foul.  I suppose it is just the nature of the beast with all that blood flowing to have so many set pieces throughout the night.  We are not too shabby on ours; in fact, we cashed one early, and we came so close to cashing several others as the night moved on.

Our midfield and defense were special tonight.  Hagenkord, Stoecklein and Brown won the middle of the field. They did such a nice job of blowing up the middle of the field that Rockhurst resorted to banging ball after ball over the midfield most of the evening. 

Finally towards the middle of the second half we had Younger and Kutey back to help win those balls out of the air around the 18-box.  Rockhurst is very dangerous on their flip throw and their corners, and second half it seemed as if we got to witness an endless stream of both.

BWhite named Tyler Stoecklein as the BWhite Player of the Match.  He did score a big-time goal (in fact all of the goals for us in the tourney so far), but more importantly he continues to play a physical center midfielder, yet still find feet and change the point of attack after he wins the ball.

Every kid who hit the field tonight played so hard.  Hopefully that energy continues on to other matches.  

BWhite called for raising our Soccer IQ, especially at the end of matches. Well, the last 2 1/2 minutes Matthew and Nick looked like National Merit finalists in the corner there, almost creating a game-ending goal for Kutey as the clock ran to all zeroes.

We love the support we get from all of our alums for this match (And I know we had a lot of future Saints there as well.); so many make it out to the match, or text the boys and coaches with support and congrats. The Rockhurst rivalry is special. 

And if you were at the match, you caught a great dance team performance, saw that STA spirit (as Coach Hammons says "Aquinas Proud"), maybe got to speak to one of our administrators (they were ALL there), and hear our great cheerleading squad go after it. It was a great night to be a Saint.

STATS:

STA: Shots: 10 (9) Corners: 6

37:08 Stoecklein (Kutey throws for the Hagenkord flick).

Rock: Shots: 3 (1) Corners: 2

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 3 (1) Corners: 3

Rockhurst: Shots: 9 (5) Corners: 4

Corners: Created: Kutey 4, Younger 2, Hagenkord, Heying, Velasco
Shots: Kutey 3, Hagenkord 3, Brown 2, Stoecklein 2, Moss, Feuerborn, D'Adamo

Top Dawg: vs. BVNW 23 Sept (1-2 OT)

Game 7: at BV DAC vs. Northwest

We opened Top Dawg with a tough loss, leading 1-0 for most of the match. 

Tyler Stoeklein had a great first half finish that allowed us to gain momentum for the rest of the half. 

Tyler had his best game in the middle this year, playing very physically. BWhite named Nick Hagenkord the BWhite player of the match as I did think Nick was the best player on the field for both teams. 

We just have to get smarter as a soccer team. We give up a bad counter off our set piece. We had no trash position, and we had two different players who could have killed the play. And of course we have to make a save on that ball. 

And then in sudden victory time we give up a goal on a throw-in that we somehow allowed into the 6-box for a quick stroke. Just awful. 

We need to regroup for the huge match Wednesday, and just go from there. 

Tony Schiltz gave us some decent minutes in his varsity debut. So that was good to see. And the back line was pretty solid as well with solid play throughout the match at midfield. 

STATS:

First Half: Shots: 9 (1). Corners. 1. 

23:15 Stoecklein (Hagenkord)

BVNW. Shots: 3 (0). Corners. 0. 

Second Half. STA. Shots. 4 (1). Corners. 0. 

BVNW. Shots:  10 (6). Corners: 4

13:23. Kearns. Breakaway

7:50. Taylor (long throw)

Shots: Hagenkord 5, Johnston 2, D'Adamo, Younger, Kutey, Stoecklein, Brown, Shiltz
Corners Created: Johnston

KC STAR article

Gardner @Gardner 19 Sept (5-1)

Game 6: @ Gardner @ 6:00 19 September and 24 October

This match will serve as the first ever started one-month-and-then-finished-the-next-month match in STA Soccer history.

Storms loomed before we ever even began, but we did get 13 minutes in and we did cash a very nice corner. So . . . to be continued.

And continue we did. We resumed with some nice possession, something we have been working on lately.  We picked up two more goals (from the field) to lead 3-0 at half.

Now second half for the most part was not pretty as we reverted to a lot of kick ball.  Gardner built an nice goal to cut the lead to 3-1.

We did rally for two nice goals in the final 4 minutes. We finished a nice corner and then with no time left on the clock, Skyler Martin played a great ball across the box for Hagenkord's diving header.  

We now begin post season firmly planted at the 8 seed.  We are still missing plenty of players, but hopefully we can get them back for the final run here. Tonight we did see some glimpses of the team that played in St. Louis/


STATS: Saints: Shots: 10 (5) Corners: 3

10:49 Hakenkord (Heying bends it beautifully to the back post for the screaming header).

20:50: Stoecklein (Younger t's it across for the knock-in.)

14:35: Geist (we nicely counter the deadball with Holland bringing the ball up the middle, then finding  Younger's feet for him to turn to play the ball in front of Danny.)

Gardner: Shots: 4 (2) Corners: 1

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 4 (2) Corners: 2

1:47 Stoecklein (D'Adamo bends it in for the Hagenkord header to Tyler on post)

:01 Hagenkord (Driscoll and Martin run a nifty give-and-go freeing Martin who lifts the cross to create the diving header)

GE: Shots: 6 (3) Corners: 2

10:34 Frizzel gets an open look in the box

Corners Created: Moss. Younger. Geist

Bishop Miege @ home 10 September (1-0)

Game 5: Bishop Miege @ STA

Well we pick up a win against the defending state champs, handing them their first loss of the season, 1-0. If the game were to be measured on possession time, it wasn't a match. If you counted shots, corners, whatever it just was not a game. But they did have a chance during the final minutes to tie it up.

We have and continue to struggle to score from normal run of play. But once again we were dangerous on quite a few deadballs, finishing nicely when Holland played the ball back-on for the Hagenkord flick. Cole Younger covered the post well to find twine.

BWhite gave Nick Hagenkord the player of the match award as he did a fine job not only on the game winning assist but also just controlling the center of the field all night. He had a great header off the post on a corner as well.

When we attack that open outside space we do well. One of the best plays of the match came on Ropson's nice overlap from the middle. He just exploded forward when he received it only to shoot just wide.  Geist also made a couple of nice runs wide from the center that gave us opportunities.

It was nice to have Jay back. We thought he gave us good minutes when he was in there.  We are off until next Thursday when we travel to Gardner for our only match next week.

Then Top Dawg. Then Gateway. Here we go.

STATS:

First Half: STA Shots: 11 (4) Corners: 3

Miege: Shots: 3 (2) Corners: 1

Second Half: STA Shots: 7 (2) Corners: 3

17:18 Younger (Holland chips the deadball back on for a Hagenkord head flick back post for the run-on)

Miege: Shots 2 (2) Corners: 0

STA Corners Created: Johnston 2, Younger, Hagenkord, Kutey, Heying
Shots: Hagenkord 5, Kutey 3, Moss 2, Brown 2, Ropson, Younger, Martin, Driscoll, Johnston

LS Shootout: 5 September Vs. O North (5-0)

Game 4: vs. Olathe North @ 6:30 @ LS West

We yanked our first victory off the train track tonight as we downed North fairly easily.  Probably the best thing we can take away from the season so far is how well our defense is playing.  I'm not sure North got a shot off last night, much less came close to scoring a goal.

BWhite made more of a summary judgment last night on the tourney as he named Michael Velasco and Matthew Holland not only BWhite Co-Players of the Game but Co-MVP's for us for the tourney.  No one scored from run-of-play against us for the three games.  3 deadballs. (You would have to look at our wingbacks like Ben Moss, and even our defensive centers (Brown, Driscoll, and Ropson as big parts of that as well, not to mention our keeping.)

Now offensively, we still look challenged. We have proved we can cash a deadball or two, but our own run-of-play needs to find itself.  With only a game a week for a couple of weeks, hopefully, we can tweak a few things.

Sophomore, Cole Younger, did pick up not only the team's first goal from run-of-play but also his first varsity goal tonight. Congrats!!

The good news, though: we have returned to even at 1-1-2. Let's get this thing rolling. We start the EKL Tuesday against and an undefeated Miege.

STATS:
First Half:

STA: Shots 19 (5) Corners: 7

31:55 Younger (Kutey headflicks it through)

11:19 Kutey (Velasco bends his corner left for the head-in)

O North: Shots: 0  Corners: 0

Second Half: Shots: 23 (7) Corners: 4

31:20 Hagenkord (Velasco heaves it long)
26:34 Stoecklein (Velasco's deadball flicked by Hagenkord for the back post frame)
19:23 Kutey (PK buried after Skevington knocked down in the box)

O North: Shots: 0 Corners: 0

Corners: Younger 2, Kutey 2, D'Adamo 2, Feuerborn 2, Heying 2, Hagenkord
Shots: Hagenkord 10, Kutey 9, Younger 4, D' Adamo 3, Geist 2, Martin 4, Driscoll 2, Feuerborn 2,  Castinado, Ropson, Skevington 3, Johnson, Stoecklein, Holland

LS Shootout vs. LS West 4 September (1-2)

Game 3: Vs LS West @ LS West

Coach Hammons told the boys before the match that "it's not what happens to you that matters so much, it is how you respond to what happens to you." Little did he know he wasn't talking about just yesterday's match, but so much about this one.

First of all we played a match with far more effort against a better team tonight than last night.  West will win quite a few matches this year. Still without Jay and Lucas, we battled very well for most of the first half, just missing on a couple of nice set pieces. (We still have a lot to work on to generate some attack from the normal field of play.)

West's deadball just before half created a second chance inside the 6-box. West's shot screamed toward Brown who was on the goal line, hitting him in the chest. The center ref interrupted that ball-to-hand as an intentional handball that denied an obvious goal (the rule reads something like that). 

So with 20 seconds left in the first half, West was awarded a PK, and just to make it fair, we lost Brown and got to play a man down the rest of the match. Derek Engle, who played just a marvelous game in the net, came within a hair of saving the PK.

The boys responded very well to the adverse conditions.  Nick Hagenkord cashed a corner less than 3 minutes in to tie the thing back up.  We, unfortunately, gave up a corner kick goal 6 minutes later (there only one of the half). So there we were back to the one-goal deficit with 30 minutes to go and a man short.

Each throw-in and corner we generated it seemed offered up a good goal-scoring opportunity. In fact, one of our corners, lead to our own PK. So we were a hair away from tying the thing back up again. We would have other chances as well, 2 or 3 with 2-3 minutes left in the match.

Let's see if we can get ourselves back to .500 tomorrow and build from there. Tonight was a positive in that step towards getting to where we want to be.

Junior keeper Derek Engle was the BWhite Player of the Match. He defended his box very well, challenging balls tonight, and as usual, he came up with a couple of athletic saves. And what Derek does so well, we keep possession of the ball when he releases it.

STATS:
First Half
STA: Shots: 4 (1) Corners: 1

LSW: Shots: 9 (6) Corners: 2
0:20 Fearon (PK)

Second Half:

STA: Shots: 7 (3) Corners: 7
38:09 Hagenkord (Velasco bends it right for the header)

LSW: Shots: 8 (4) Corners: 1
31:28 Fearon (Right-footed corner bent into the near post, flicked in with a quickly raised right foot.)

Corners Created: (Velasco 2, Holland 2, Hagenkord 2, D'Adamo, Kutey)
Shots: (Hagenkord 4, Kutey 4, Stoecklein, Driscoll, Ropson)

Lee's Summit Shootout vs. LS North 3 September (1-1)

Game 2: First Match of Lee's Summit Shootout vs. LS North

As Hamms said at half, he had never seen scoresheets like the one he was handed  before half in all of the years he has coached at STA. We had nothing except some solid fouling. 

Yes, somehow we miraculously stood tied at 0-0.  With some luck and some Matthew Brown we held them at bay. And after a bunch of coaches complaining, we just let the boys meet with one another about 3 minutes to see what they could work out.

I would not say we were great second half, but we were a lot better. We generated 9 shots, 3 corners (scored on one of those and almost on another) while allowing them 5 shots, only one on goal, the game-tieer.

But even that improved performance was disappointing as could not finish this one off with only 8 minutes left.  We sloppily fouled, failed to run or compete with their one legit headball guy, and did not blow up the play at keeper when the ball was inside the 6-box.  

So we tie.  We should have finished it off, but we were lucky to be tied at half.

Cole Younger, in his first varsity game, got the nod from BWhite as the BWhite Player of the Game. He just missed the game-winner on the late corner, but he slotted several nice balls, competed all over that front half, and made nice runs--just looked like a legit forward. He is going to help us.

And obviously we missed Lucas Bartlett (out for 3-4 weeks with a broken foot) at center midfield. We just did not generate much of an attack. Jay Johnston was also out, and we are not sure he will be back for the rest of the week either. Moss and Geist did give us some pretty good minutes at right back, though. Ben Gasparovich, who got hurt yesterday in the JV match, really could not play either. So we have plenty of opportunity available for guy to earn some varsity time.

We now have LS West tomorrow. We can still win this thing if we can put the "W" up tomorrow evening. We will need a much more consistent performance against a very good West team.

STATS:
First Half:  STA: Shots 2 (0) Corners: 0

LSN: Shots 3 (1) Corners: 1

2nd Half:

STA Shots: 9 (4) Corners: 3

37:08 Ropson (Heying bends the led-footed corner in)

LSN: Shots: 5 (1) Corners: 1

8:25 Hoffman (45 yard floating deadball)

Corners Created: (Kutey, Martin, & Younger)
Shots: Hagenkord 3, Kutey 2, Heying 2, Brown 2, Younger,, Driscoll,