SGF Soccer

Southwest Missouri's Soccer Resource

Archives for August 2006

Evangel University Adding Soccer?

Evangel CrusadersCruising for regional soccer news recently, I stumbled upon this bit of news on the Evangel University website:

The Evangel athletics department is asking former athletes to help match a $1,000,000 grant that will greatly improve the facilities for all sports. The Ashcroft Center project will include new coaches’ offices, a greatly enlarged training room, and new locker rooms for volleyball, basketball, and soccer.

You can see the request, along with diagrams and photos of the project, at this link.

For some background on the situation, it’s useful to know that Evangel competes in the Heart of America Athletics Conference which includes the Avila Eagles, Baker Wildcats, Benedictine Ravens, Central Methodist Eagles, Culver-Stockton Wildcat, Graceland Yellowjacket, Lindenwood Lions, MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneer, Missouri Valley Vikings and the William Jewell Cardinal in the NAIA.

There are Springfield natives playing soccer at several of these schools, including Jesus Zuniga (Nixa 2006 & SW All Star) at Avila, John Richmiller (Cassville 2003) at Culver-Stockton, Dilan Chastain (Marshfield 2006) at Lindenwood, Zac Buchanan (Ava 2006) and Ace Everett (Ozark 2006) at MidAmerica Nazarene, Kris Scoville (Ava 2003), Louis Wampler (Camdenton 2006 & SW All Star), and Michael Drozdowski (Springfield MO) at Missouri Valley and Katie Brooks (Parkview 2005) at William Jewell.

In other words, soccer is played at every member school in the HAAC EXCEPT Evangel. Lindenwood and William Jewell compete at a national level in the NAIA on a regular basis. I contacted David Filmore in the Sports Information Department on Monday (via the website contact form) asking for clarification but haven’t heard back from him or the University at this point.

It seems to me that an organization that values outreach the way Evangel does could benefit from the greatest cross-cultural communication program I know – the world’s game.
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Christian County Derby

and news from the Ozarks Conference as well!

The Ozark Tigers and Nixa Eagles wasted no time getting their season started Tuesday evening. Ozark Tigers at Nixa EaglesOzark came out strong in the first half according to several knowledgeable observers, controlling play for significant periods (I arrived during stoppage time in the first half). The result was a lead in the 26th minute on a goal by jr. Josh Maloney, assisted by jr. Robbie Curtis.

Nixa tied the score during stoppage time on a goal by sr. Kyle Shelley, assisted by fr. Kaleb Romero (pictured at left). Ozark was unphased and came right back to take the lead again before the clock wound down, again Curtis to Maloney.

The second half was a different story. The Eagles attacked early and often, seeing their first shot pushed wide off the upright by the Ozark GK in the first 30 seconds. That early aggressive effort would make the difference at the start of OT when jr. Austin Cozby’s run down the right side earned Nixa a set piece about 35 yards out along the right touch line. Wil Hanger’s service was to the far post and while GK Jason Taylor knocked the initial ball out, fr. Kaleb Romero sealed Ozark’s fate when he hammered home a volley into the upper left corner at the 40 second mark. Nixa 3, Ozark 2.

Kaleb is the lone freshman on the Nixa varsity roster and has earned some more minutes with his performance (2 assists and a game-winning goal) while sr. Kyle Shelley reinforced for Coach Evan Palmer why he has chosen to return to soccer after sitting out his junior season. With seniors Wil Hanger at sweeper, Jon Durbin running the midfield and Danny Curro wreaking havoc up top, Nixa saw the result you expect from a team of upper classmen. Add Guillermo Zuniga’s penetrating runs from midfield and I expect Nixa should improve on their 9-13-2 record last year.

Kickapoo – 4
at Rolla – 1
The Chiefs visited Rolla in an early Ozark Conference matchup and came away with the win. Tyler Williams scored 2 to open the game, assisted by Tyler Northrip and Heath Melugin. Melugin got the third from Adam Peterson. Rolla scored their goal early in the second half on a PK by Tyler Sinnott while Luke Prater completed the scoring for Kickapoo, unassisted.

Waynesville – 10
at Hillcrest -2
Hornet’s Soccer has the story

West Plains – 2 (OT)
at Camdenton – 1
Zizzer’s Soccer has the story

Joplin – 2
at Lebanon – 0
Goals were scored by Max Duncan, freshman and Matt Leinhart, Junior for Joplin. Shutout by sophomore John McDermid.

Bolivar – 7
Marshfield – 2
The Jays scored first in this game, from lone senior Thomas Hyde. That woke up the older, more experienced Liberators. Jr James Reese, from Willis Zirschky, also scored for the Jays in the 2nd half.vip escorts in dubai

Fishback Earns GLVC Player of the Week Honors

Brian Fishback Excellent news coming in from Indianapolis Tuesday. Parkview graduate (2005) and Springfield SC alum Brian Fishback earned Player of the Week honors in the Great Lakes Valley Conference for his weekend performance.

Brian has apparently been converted to a forward after playing as a midfielder for the four years I’ve known him. He has the touch as demonstrated by the results – 3 goals on 6 shots in 2 games. From the GLVC website:

In University of Indy’s 3-1 win over Ashland University on Aug. 25, Fishback took two shots and tallied one goal. His score was the first of the contest in the 20th minute. He connected from eight yards out helping the Greyhounds jump out to an early lead over the defending Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion.

On Aug. 27, his first goal against the Gannon Golden Knights came in the first minute of the contest off a free kick assist from junior John Higgins (Dumfermline, UK). After again enabling the Greyhounds to gain an early advantage, he added an insurance goal for UIndy in the 82nd minute to halt Gannon’s second half run.

You can catch Brian’s play live in a few weeks. The University of Indianapolis Greyhounds will be in Springfield September 15th to take on Drury University in a GLVC game. I know of at least one recruit in Springfield that will be there. I told Brian in early August I had a potential conflict that evening, since SLU hosts Indiana that same evening. I guess he’s using the best possible argument to convince me to be there – how about you?

PS – Mrs. Fishback, I’m sorry. I dug through my entire archive of photos (over 8000) since 2003 and for some reason I couldn’t find a better photo of your son. I promise to rectify that! And for those who haven’t dug into my Video archive in awhile, how about an interview with Brian last September. I need to get some of the Club stuff up…

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Creighton Watch

The Missouri State Bears will host the Creighton Blue Jays at Plaster Stadium on Wednesday October 4th. Mediacom is working to determine if they will be able to broadcast the game which ranks as the most important regular season game the local heros will play this season. Conference rivals, one of two Missouri Valley Conference teams to make the NCAA Tournament last year (along with Bradley) and the regional standard by which the Bears must measure themselves.

So I’m going to track the progress of both teams in the weeks leading up to the match.

This past weekend Creighton took part in the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament at the University of Notre Dame. Going into the weekend ranked #8 in the National Soccer Coaches poll, on Friday they faced #12 Indiana. Indiana won the game, 1-0, when Brian Ackley scored on a header from a corner kick in the 108th minute. Indiana dominated on the scoreboard, as they out-shot Creighton 22-6 in the game and held a 16-2 advantage in corner kicks.

That game was followed by a 1-4 loss to #15 Notre Dame on Sunday. The Blue Jays went up 1-0 in the 2nd minute on a Notre Dame own goal. The Fightin’ Irish tied the game in the 14th minute and took the lead in the 18th minute. The updated polls will come out September 5th.

Missouri State faced off against Oral Roberts University at home on Friday, finishing tied 0-0 after two extra time periods. On Sunday in KC, they beat UMKC 2-1, playing a man down for the final 60 minutes after goalkeeper Lance Parker was sent off for a handball outside the box when he stopped a breakaway. Freshman Alex Riggs came on to get his first college win as the Bears got two goals before giving up one late one (oh oh).

The Missouri Valley Conference website recognized Justin Douglass for his defensive efforts this weekend

Douglass anchored an MSU defense that went nearly 200 minutes without allowing a goal in the Bears’ two season-opening matches. The Bears held Oral Roberts scoreless for 110 minutes in a 0-0 double overtime tie in the season opener on Friday. In the Bears’ 2-1 victory over UMKC on Sunday, the Bears played a man down for nearly 60 minutes before surrendering a goal with six seconds left in the match.

On a related note, Drake University defeated UMKC 3-0 on Friday and then knocked off Oral Roberts by the same score on Sunday. That game was played in the rain and Drake got their first goal in the 46th minute before going onto the 3-0 shutout win. Bradley won their Bradley Classic tournament last weekend by beating St. Francis (PA) 3-0 and then tying Duquesne 1-1.backpage dubai escort