Perryville boys soccer team reaches Class 2 quarterfinals with win over Bayless

ARNOLD, Mo. -- Perryville's Eann Bergman and Luke Schlichting have been working well together all season long. So much so that Perryville coach Jerry Fulton called them "the best duo he had ever coached."

They've assisted one another on plenty of goals this season, but none of them were more important than the one that came with the Pirates facing a one-goal deficit against Bayless in a Class 2 sectional.

With 20 minutes to play in the game, Schlichting stole a pass at midfield and passed the ball to Bergman. Bergman played the ball for a few touches before finding Schlichting running down the middle of the field. Bergman's pass was placed perfectly behind Schlichting so that he could fake out a defender and score a game-tying goal in the bottom left corner of the net past the Bronchos diving goalie David Loseille.

The goal sparked some momentum for Perryville (26-1), which outshot the Bronchos 10-0 in the second half and went on to defeat Bayless (12-12-2) 3-1 on Tuesday at Fox High School.

"We love playing together, and we feel like we can score on any play," Perryville senior and captain Schlichting said. "That give-and-go type play worked really well on the turf we played on, and it could not have come at a better time."

Perryville scored all three of its goals in a 6 minutes, 12 seconds span, the highest numbers of goals it has scored in such a short span of time all season.

Perryville midfielder Pablo Mattingly reacts to scoring the go-ahead goal against Bayless, his first of the season kicked off his right foot, as Matt Moran joins him, during the second half of a Class 2 sectional Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014 in Arnold, Missouri. Perryville won 3-1. (Fred Lynch)

"That's what we do, we score in bunches," Perryville senior and captain Matt Moran said. "It has never come that quick, but once we missed a couple shots in that second half, me and Luke Schlichting kind of looked at each other and said, 'We're going to get one.'"

Pablo Mattingly scored a go-ahead goal four minutes later on a free kick cross from Collin Steif. Steif's cross was right at Mattingly in the middle of the box, who one-timed the shot past Loseille.

The goal was especially great for Fulton, who had been trying to get Mattingly to score with his right foot all season.

"It felt great to get the game winner, but even better that it was off my right foot," Mattingly said with a laugh. "Coach Fulton has been working with me on that for three years now, so after I got it I looked right at him and pointed to my right foot. It was great."

Two minutes later, Moran scored a goal to put the game out of reach for Bayless.

Moran was right in front of the net on a cross. The cross appeared to be getting cleared by a Bayless defender, but during the scramble in front of the net Moran took a clean shot right past Losielle, who had no chance to make a save.

"It was pretty nice to secure the game for us," Moran said. "We played a little soft early on, so to comeback like that was amazing."

The Perryville team had talked about getting off to a fast start all week in practice, especially with its season on the line. However, the fast start the Pirates had hoped for never came.

Perryville missed chances to score in the first half. The Pirates best chance came with 39 minutes to play in the half when Trevor Martin found Schlichting on a free kick. Martin's kick sailed 55 yards down the field before Schlichting corralled it on the other end.

Schlichting dribbled once before attempting to lift a shot over the head of Loseille. Loseille reacted quickly to the play and came out to make a diving stop before Schlichting could get a clean shot off.

Two minutes later, Perryville senior Kyle Wood found Mattlingly at the top of the Bronchos box. Mattingly one-timed Woods' cross, but his shot was high and wide.

Schlichting almost found Bergman on a pass with 28 minutes remaining in the first. Bergman was open down the right side of the field and only had Loseille to beat. However, Schlichting's pass was out of the reach of Bergman as Losielle came out to make an easy save.

With 25 minutes to play in the first, Bayless scored on a deflection off of a Perryville defender.

Perryville goalie Luke Dobbelare came out to make a save, but the ball bounced right to Eric Badic, who scored on an open net.

Fulton said his team just seemed out of sorts leading up to the game and in the first half.

"I basically pointed out the obvious," Perryville coach Jerry Fulton of his message to his players at halftime. "I told them if they didn't get their heads out of their butts and start playing the game like they know how to play, their season was over in 40 minutes."

Schlichting said the Pirates took their coaches advice and turned it into a win.

"They were winning balls early on and it took us at least 20 minutes to win a couple," Schlichting said. "That's usually us winning those, so I think it just took us time to adjust. Once we did it was like we couldn't be stopped."

Perryville will attempt to extend its 22-game winning streak when it hosts John Burroughs in a Class 2 quarterfinal Saturday.

Fulton said Perryville's slow start against the Bronchos won't be good enough if they want to beat the Bombers.

"I was really hoping our season wouldn't end like that, and luckily they dug down deep and kept going," Fulton said. "But we were getting beat and not playing our game. We cannot do this anymore. We cannot start this slow anymore. If we do then our ultimate goal of winning this thing won't be reached."