Month: April 2005

News-Leader coverage

The Springfield News-Leader and HS beat writer Kyle Neddenriep provide coverage for Catholic’s remarkable run through the Capital City Classic last weekend when they knocked off #11 ranked Rolla (Class II) enroute to the Tourney championship. Coach Timson offers some comments on the weekend and several of the players earn recognition as part of a balanced scoring attack. Alicia Tonjuk has 14, Shannon FitzGerald and Tara Bailes have 11 and Elle Holtman 10. If you recall from my earlier coverage of the opening match against Rolla and the followup after the weekend results had been tallied, the winning goal in the three games came from three of the four players listed. That is balance!

Finally, Jenny Melton of Camdenton was recognized in the Athletes of the Week column. Jenny scored four goals in the Lebanon Tournament last weekend and has scored at least one goal in each of the Lady Lakers last seven matches according to the report. Congratulations.mayfair dubai escorts

Central Ozarks Conference update

Checking sports stories from the Central Ozark Conference:

Willard and Marshfield faced off in a Conference match last night with Willard earning the shutout by a score of 2-0. Goals came from Patsy Middleton, assisted by CJ Epperson with CJ scoring the second on an assist from Patsy. The JV game finished as a scoreless draw.

The Marshfield Mail provides highlights of three games in the past week. The Lady Jays took on Class I Distric 12 opponents Joplin McAuley last week, outlasting them to win on PK’s following a match and two OT’s that ended in a scoreless tie. They followed that win with a visit from another District 12 opponent when they hosted Bolivar on Monday. This time the result was a 1-3 loss. They finished their week with a tight game, and win, over Central HS by a 3-2 score.

The Bolivar Herald-Free Press offers their look at the match on Monday against Marshfield.

Finally, the Nixa Bulldogs hosted and outlasted Ozark when Jessie Yach scored the game winner in OT off an assist from Sarah Goble for a 1-0 win. According the score line in todays News-Leader, Jessie scored from 12 yards out five minutes into the overtime period. It was her 23rd goal of the season. The shutout was recorded by Adrienne McDonald. The JV game went to Ozark who won 2-0.

Checking the Nixa website it seems the Ozark match came a day earlier then scheduled, possibly due to the weather? Scores of the Bolivar game are unavailable from either school and it looks like there should be a match today with Joplin coming to town.

That’s all folks!good escort sites

Rolla 4, Glendale 1

The Bulldogs of Rolla HS came to town last night and with their 4-1 win over the Glendale Falcons, positioned themselves as the likely Ozarks Conference Champions. Rolla maintained their unbeaten record in the Conference by jumping out to a 2-0 lead with goals in the 4th and 7th minutes. Both goals came against the run of play, as Glendale was working very hard and pushing into the Rolla end consistently. Showing calm under fire, Rolla got their first on a breakaway by Kelsey McFarland (Autumn McEachern I’m guessing, I was still setting up my camera) and the second, by Sophie Cox, when GHS was unable to get the ball out of their end following a corner kick. Sophie got off a crisp right footed shot from inside the box that handcuffed the keeper.

Glendale continued to press forward and got within one when senior Raven Haik scored her first goal of the seaon in the 14th minute. The goal came off an assist by Lorin Opfer, a freshman MF, who crossed a ball into the six yard box after first winning two 50/50 balls, one outside the box and the 2nd inside the box, after Rolla was unable to clear an earlier cross by Lauren Bettlach. Raven calmly slotted the ball into the far side of the net as she anticipated the pass well. The play was begun by Opfer after winning another 50/50 ball in the center of the field, slotting the ball to the far right side for Bettlach to run onto and send in the initial cross. Lorin was later hurt following a collision and hard landing, leaving before the end of the first half with a well wrapped collarbone if I had to guess.

The second half opened with another early goal by Rolla in the 43rd minute on a header by Sophie Cox, her second goal of the match. Sophie was able to meet the ball and direct it the back half of the net and over the keepers head. The goal came on a corner kick earned after an early run into the box by Autumn McEachern. The final margin came on a goal by Autumn that was started when Sopie won a 50/50 ball in the center of the field and found Kelsey McFarland on the left side. Kelsey slotted a pass into Autumn at the top of the 20 yard circle, she turned 180 degrees on the ball, beat two defenders on the dribble into the box and got the shot off to beat an onrushing third defender and the keeper for her second on the evening.

Whether it’s a function of Mike Howard’s coaching model or it is representative of the type of players coming out of Rolla these days, the Bulldogs have recently had strong direct teams. The boys beat GHS in the District Finals last November on four set plays. Mike has Autumn McEachern and Kelsey McFarland providing strong forward play, supported in the middle by captains Sophie Cox and Rachel Moore and Rebecca Blum providing strong central defense as well as another target on set plays. The junior class at Rolla should defend their District Championship of 2004. I would also anticipate a rematch against Kickapoo in the Sectional match on May 24th.

The game was reminiscent of the Kickapoo Shoot Out match Glendale played against Jackson with their strong direct play. While GHS lost 1-2 in that match, it appears that Coach Rogers has made some changes that were very positive. His team is heavily weighted to a strong incoming freshman class including the aforementioned Lorin Opfer as well as Jamie Bond, Megan Garrard and Ashleigh Dallas, all of whom are getting significant minutes. The sophomore class features Mindy Neal, Lauren Bettlach and goalkeeper Laura McElroy and should offer plenty of competition to the Ozarks Conference for the next few years.

The JV match was won by the Glendale Falcons, 2-1.
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Ozarks Conference Update

With Conference play in full swing, there were four matches last night, two of them with implications in the title chase. If you recall, the Regional poll of the coaches on April 6th had the teams ranked as follows: 1. Kickapoo 2. Rolla 3. Parkview 4. Waynesville 5. Glendale & Joplin (tie).

Since that time, Kickapoo traveled to Rolla and lost 0-1, defeated Joplin 4 – 0 on April 12th and got by Glendale 1-0 April 19th on a late direct kick by Rachel Lavoy. Yesterday Kickapoo won their match against Parkview 4 – 0. The News-Leader features the Parkview game on the front page of the Sports section today.

Rolla meanwhile took on Catholic & Joplin over the weekend as part of the Capital City Tournament, losing 0 – 3 to Catholic in an upset (Rolla is ranked #11 in Class II at the moment). Coach Mike Howard offers some comments on the games at the Rolla website. Rolla beat Joplin 2 – 0 in the Tourney game and turned around and played Joplin at home on Tuesday in the Conference matchup. The 4 – 0 win keeps Rolla undefeated and on top of the Ozark Conference.

Glendale was ranked very low at the beginning of the season but should be working their way up the Coaches poll with their win last night over Waynesville 3 -2. That follows their win over Parkview on April 12th by a 3 – 0 score.

That leaves the traditional powers at the top of the Conference with Rolla holding the advantage on the basis of their undefeated conference record and their win over Kickapoo earlier this season. With a win over Glendale Thursday evening the Bulldogs would control their destiny in the Conference. The match is being played at Lake Country Soccer Field #2.

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“The Game of their Lives”

I got to see the new movie, the one about the US National team’s game against England in the 1950 World Cup, last night while I was in STL on business. It’s directed by David Anspaugh who also directed “Rudy” & “Hoosiers”. If you enjoyed those movies, you’ll come away satisfied yet again. I enjoyed the movie but I have to admit to being biased. That bias comes from some personal history. I have played on the same field with Harry Keough, a member of that team, and his son Ty.

I’m an Army brat. Even though I was born in Munich and attended 3rd through 5th grade in Kaiserslautern on a 2nd tour in Germany, I didn’t become a soccer fan until we left Honolulu in 1974 to move to St. Louis. I had just graduated from HS and we lived in Florissant, a Northern suburb. While attending Florissant Valley Community College, I worked as a photographer for the college paper and the local weekly paper where I shot high school sports. I discovered that the kids at Rosary HS and Aquinas HS that played soccer were bigger heros then the football players. The FVCC kids, coached by Pete Sorber (son Mike went on to be a US National team midfielder, play in the Mexican 1st Division and now coaches at SLU), were winning National JC championships. STL was a soccer hotbed. I finally got onto the pitch myself when I transfered to the UM-Rolla and was recruited to play on the GDI intramural soccer team. I was hooked.

When I moved back to STL after college, my buddies and I started teams and began competing in any league we could get into. My first indoor season was played at a facility near Chesterfield Mall and we talked the league administrator into letting us play in an Over 30 league by explaining how bad, I mean new, we were to the game. Turned out there were a group of 50 year old guys playing in the league as well and we were pretty excited to think we might actually win a game that season. Well, the old guys disabused us of that notion pretty quickly. Turns out the team included Harry Keough and Bob Guelker and a number of coaches in the area. They schooled us. It was not pretty. Here I am, early 20’s and I spent the whole game chasing the ball. It was a clinic in one touch passes and keepaway.

Later I went on to earn my MO “D” Coaching licenses at clinics that were run by Harry & Bob who were coaching at SLU and SIU-E respectively. The annual match between the two teams had to be played at Busch Stadium because of the crowds they drew. My opportunity to play with Ty came during the regular pick up games that went on at Shaw Park, in downtown Clayton. The fondest memory I have of STL soccer is the fact that I could go anywhere in town and be accepted on the field regardless of skill level. It isn’t that way in Chicago or other areas I’ve played but in the 80’s in STL, it rocked.

Those experiences, and the new friends I make because of ‘the beautiful game’ are what drive my enthusiasm for soccer. It’s why I hope this site will become a small part of the effort many people in this area make to grow the game and to introduce as many people as possible to the world’s game.

If you want to learn more about the movie, the IMDB is a good starting point or do a Google search on the title. There is also a site run by a family from “The Hill” that are related to one of the players featured in the book and the movie with interesting background information. Finally, if you’d like to know more about the history of soccer in St. Louis, the place to go is here.

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