Jackson tumbles to Bluff

Jackson's high school boys soccer season came to an end Thursday night with a 3-1 loss to Poplar Bluff in the first round of the Class 3 District 1 tournament at Central High School.

The Mules advanced to Saturday's 11 a.m. final against top-seeded Central, which beat Farmington 9-0. The final also will be played at Central.

Jackson (9-15) had opportunities in the first half, when it fell behind 1-0, and throughout the game but could not convert until Poplar Bluff already had three goals on the board.

"I think if we could've scored first, it could have been a different game," Jackson coach Zack Walton said. "We played well. We put some good passes together, and we had some opportunities."

Jackson had nine corner kicks to Poplar Bluff's three. But the Mules outshot the Indians, forcing Jackson's Tyler Holman to make six saves and hitting the crossbar twice.

"They're good with their counterattacks," Walton said of the Mules.

Poplar Bluff's first goal, in fact, came not long after a Jackson restart near the Mules' goal with less than 10 minutes remaining in the first half. Poplar Bluff countered with Craig Lansford passing to Justin Alford, who made a nice run up the left side and fired a shot past Holman.

Poplar Bluff keeper Greg Clark came up with four saves, including some plays on Chris Bramlett in the second half that kept the Mules in front.

Jake Lampe scored midway through the second half and Alford scored his 43rd goal of the season with 10 minutes to play.

Jackson's lone goal came immediately after, when Bramlett knocked home a rebound of a shot by Tyler Sprandel.

"We still had some opportunities to score. We just didn't get one to go in for us," said Walton, whose team won the first meeting of the season with the Mules and then lost the next three.

After the game, he posed for a photo with his nine seniors -- all of whom were starters at some point during the season.

"They were all good players for me," Walton said.

-- Toby Carrig

Central 9, Farmington 0

Tyson Whiteside had two goals and an assist and Ryan Ponder scored two goals to lead the Tigers (16-9) to a district semifinal victory at home.

Matt Hellrich added a goal and two assists, Devon Edmonds had two assists, and Jeff Beard had one goal and one assist. Adding goals were Lance Altenthal, Justin Lambert and Jesse Pyeatte. Tony Lueckel and Aaron Hutsell each had an assist.

Lueckel and Jordan Young split the shutout.

Central plays in Saturday's final against second-seeded Poplar Bluff, a team it beat 4-1 and 3-0 in the regular season.

Class 2 District 1

Notre Dame defeated Hillsboro 5-0 to advance to tonight's district championship game against Sikeston, which eliminated Lutheran South.

Chris Meyer opened the scoring with an assist from Abe Dirnberger 12 minutes into the contest, and the Bulldogs added two more goals before halftime.

Frankie Ellis, Tyler LeGrand, Dee Goodin and Max Poppen added the goals for Notre Dame. Bryce Willen, Elliot Vance and Kirk Boeller added assists.

Boeller and Nathan Kolda shared time in goal for the shutout.

The hardest part of the day for Notre Dame (11-12) may have been getting the field ready after several days of rain.

The Bulldogs play at home at 6 tonight against Sikeston, a team it beat twice in the regular season.

"They've got speed up top," Bulldogs coach Brad Wittenborn said. "We have to mark them and back each other up because the field still is a little slick. We did that well tonight."

-- From staff reports