What ESPN HS has called the premier Midwestern High School tournament, the 2012 Gateway City Soccer Classic will feature 62 teams this year from across the United States. Included in that list are eight teams from Central and Southwest Missouri that will battle for a Final 4 spot in late October.
Class 1 – Springfield Catholic
The Fightin’ Irish are in Bracket E which includes the Nixa Eagles as well St Dominic, the St Louis #1 ranked small school and a Class 2 Quarterfinalists in 2011, #5 ranked Marquette and Eureka who are receiving votes in the St Louis rankings and compete in a very difficult District. Catholic will open the tournament with a 3:30 pm game Friday against Belleville East. SGFsoccer will be on hand to provide live reports and the best soccer photography available in Southwest Missourah.
Their opponent in Saturday’s first game will be from the Eureka-Mt Carmel (Chicago) game. They are in the opposite bracket from Nixa and could face them in the second match Saturday.
Class 2 – Carthage Tigers
The Tigers, who recently lost a pair of one goal games to Springfield Catholic, head East and will compete with Glendale in Bracket D. An opening game Friday at 3:45 pm will be against Moline (IL) with Saturday’s early match coming from the Ft Zumwalt South – Glenbrook North game.
Class 3 – Columbia Hickman, Columbia Rock Bridge, Jeff City, Glendale, Kickapoo, Nixa
Nixa Eagles – as noted earlier, the Eagles are in Bracket E along with Springfield Catholic. They open the tournament today at 5:15 pm against St Dominic’s, the #1 Small school in St Louis (10-1) who’s only loss came was 0-1 against #4 ranked SLUH. SGFsoccer will be on hand for this game as well, which like the Catholic match is being played at the Lou Fusz facility in Creve Coeur.
Saturday’s initial game will be against either Cape Notre Dame or Marquette, #7 in Class 3 in the recent State poll. If the Eagles are going to challenge Kickapoo’s hegemony, now is the time to do it.
Glendale Falcons – part of Bracket D along with Carthage, the Falcon’s open with Granite City, a team like themselves used to success but still reaching for familiar heights. The 5:30 pm game at Ft Zumwalt West in St Peters will be followed on Saturday morning with either Ft Zumwalt West or Morton (Chicago).
Kickapoo Chiefs – the Chiefs open with Marquette Jesuit (Marquette University HS), a team averaging 3.57 goals per game and ranked #1 in Wisconsin, and unbeaten so far this season. It will be a challenging start! Saturday’s early game will be against either Dunbar or Grandview Heights.
Jeff City Jays – the Jay’s opened the tournament Thursday with a close 0-1 loss to Middleton (WI), ranked #2 in Wisconsin. They play St James Academy, a team that has reached the Kansas large school Final 4 the last four years today at 2:15 at DeSmet.
Columbia Rock Bridge – at #9 the top-ranked program in Southwest/Central Missouri, they are competing in Bracket F along with Kickapoo. They open today with O’Fallon Township (3pm at O’Fallon) before advancing due to a quirk in the schedule to play the winner of today’s SLUH
Reitz Memorial game. SLUH jumped to #4 in the State Polls while Reitz is the top program in Indianapolis.
Check in throughout the weekend for updates from Southwest Missouri’s Soccer Resource, serving soccer junkies since 2005. Accept no imitators!
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