Gone in a flash: St. Vincent leans on its speed to create chances

~ The midfield's quickness helped the Indians bury teams.

The St. Vincent speedy midfielders have generated much of their team's offense, combining for 55 goals and 47 assists so far.

"We try to use our speed as much as we can because it kind of gives us an advantage," freshman outside midfielder Storm French said.

Coach Dustin Wengert said his current squad is the fastest soccer team that he has coached at St. Vincent over the past four years.

The speed starts with the midfielders, who put the rest of the offense in motion using their quickness to pass, receive passes and cross to the forwards.

St. Vincent freshman Storm French and her Indians teammates hope to capitalize on their speed at the Class 1 state tournament Friday and Saturday. (Elizabeth Dodd)

"Our midfielders are all quick," forward Liz Brueckner said.

The St. Vincent soccer team is making its first appearance in the final four. The Indians (18-5) play St. Pius X of Kansas City (16-8-1) at 11 a.m. Friday in a Class 1 semifinal contest at the Anheuser-Busch Center in Fenton. The winner advances to play either Trinity Catholic (17-9) or Springfield Catholic (19-6) in the championship game at noon Saturday.

Speed has been one of the Indians' top strengths all year and it is something they will continue to try to use to their advantage at state.

"When you've got speed, you've got to swing the field and we've really been working on that this week and hoping that we can hit that ball and play the back-side, outside-mid and that's where our speed is -- the outside-mid position," Wengert said. "We're trying to get them free and one-on-one with the defender or even one-on-one with the goalkeeper."

Wengert said outside midfielders French and Rachel Sutterer, center midfielder Courtney Besand as well as Brueckner, a forward, provide the core of the quickness that has sparked the offense, helped the Indians win their past nine games and outscore the 18 opponents that they've beaten this spring by a combined score of 95-9.

"Courtney Besand is real quick in the center-mid and then really a substitute, a girl who's played a nice role in Rachel Sutterer, can really run down the sidelines," Wengert said. "Storm French is sneaky quick and Liz Brueckner even is at forward. Them four have really solidified the offense with their speed. And then you have Kristin Mattingly in the back, who is very quick as a sweeper. If she does misplay a ball, she's got her speed to make up for it. So we've got five or six girls who can really run."

Wengert knew some quick players would return from last spring, but what surprised him was the speed of the incoming freshmen. The Indians are a youthful team with five freshmen and four sophomores. Four of the freshmen start. Wengert, however, said the biggest surprise probably has been French, who has tallied nine goals and 13 assists.

"She can beat anybody to the corner, and when she crosses it, she has a really good left foot," Besand said about French.

French and Sutterer have provided quickness on the outside. Sutterer, who moved from forward to outside-midfield during the year, has eight goals and 10 assists.

"I would have to say Rachel Sutterer, who plays outside-mid, is the quickest on the team," Brueckner said. "She's always beating her outside defender to get the ball across to the forwards and the center-mids to finish. The [other] midfielders feed Rachel the ball from the middle to the corner and Rachel is off to the races to get it."

Wengert said Besand does a good job at center-midfield getting the offense in position. Besand, a senior, is leading the team in points as she has 17 goals and 10 assists.

Besand explained that she and her teammates use speed to their advantage in the passing game while using a long-style passing game most times.

"[Speed is] pretty important because our passing isn't like the short kind of pass that Notre Dame does," Besand said. "It's more like kick it to the corner and we know they [outside midfielders] will be there because most of the time our outside-mids are a lot faster than the opponents'. ... We use our speed because usually we beat everybody."

Brueckner added: "If someone has a bad pass or something, then we're quicker to get back and to get the ball and beat the other defender."

French said the more the offense passes the ball, the faster its pace and that she thinks the quickness of the midfielders has helped make St. Vincent a much better team.

The midfielders also use their speed to get back to help out on defense, Sutterer said. One of the main reasons Wengert moved Sutterer from forward to midfield was because she could hurry back on defense.

"Offensively, we attack and then we're quick enough to be able to get back on defense," Sutterer said. "We help out our defense a lot. I think that strengthens our defense a lot. Not many teams can at least transition with us. Speed always helps us a lot."

Courtney Heberlie (29 points), sophomore Emily Cissell (20 points) and sophomore Chelsie Boxdorfer (seven points) all have provided offense from the midfield.

"Courtney Heberlie or Courtney Besand can score from really anywhere inside 25 yards," Wengert said.

The speedy Brueckner has added 35 points and freshman forward Abby Lappe has 24 points.

"It just felt like we were quicker [than other teams] to receive the ball," Brueckner said. "We were quick to send the ball to the outsides to really work our outsides, whereas that makes the defenders have to make a decision -- 'OK, do I have to go out to get her or guard my person in the middle and it leaves someone in the middle open to shoot.'"

Wengert knows that St. Pius' strong midfield should provide an interesting matchup for St. Vincent during Friday's semifinal.

"We've got to take their mistakes and capitalize right away, kind of like a fastbreak in basketball and get numbers on them right away," Wengert said. "I think that's the way our girls really enjoy playing this year."