St. Vincent soccer makes third straight trip to state

It's difficult to make yourself an underdog when you're making your third consecutive appearance at the final four.

But that's what the St. Vincent girls soccer team is doing as it prepares for today's Class 1 state semifinal.

"Everyone thought this was the year we were not going to go," St. Vincent senior Chelsie Boxdorfer said. "But we're just proving everyone wrong. It is a lot of pressure because we want to have back what's rightfully ours."

St. Vincent's Holly Blandford kicks the ball away from John Burroughs defender Maggie Chapman during the first half of the Class 1 quarterfinal Saturday, May 28, 2011 at John Burroughs. (Fred Lynch)

Any who doubted the Indians did so at his or her own peril. The Indians (21-4) suffered two consecutive losses in early April before winning 15 of their next 17. They haven't allowed a goal in their last five games.

"I feel like we have more motivation than pressure because we want to be right up at the first spot, where we were two years ago," St. Vincent junior Storm French said, referring to the program's first state title in 2009. "We don't want to settle for anything less."

St. Vincent will face Orchard Farm, which is located in St. Charles, Mo., at 11 a.m. today at the Anheuser-Busch Center in Fenton, Mo. The winner will face the winner of Springfield Catholic (21-4) vs. Pembroke Hill (13-13) in Saturday's noon title game. The losers will play for third place at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The Indians would love a shot at Springfield Catholic for the title since the Irish are the defending state champs and the team that knocked off the Indians in last year's state semifinals.

"I feel like we want our revenge back for last year," St. Vincent junior Courtney Heberlie said.

But the Indians are doing everything they can to avoid looking past today's opponent.

"Last year I feel that we were looking too far ahead," St. Vincent sophomore Holly Cissell said. "This year I think we've learned from that and we need to take it one game at a time."

Orchard Farm (17-7) advanced to the final four with a 4-3 overtime win over John F. Kennedy in the state quarterfinals.

"We've been able to get some film of Orchard Farm so we can know what kind of drills to do to help us prepare for the game," French said. "The games we had, we weren't too impressed with them. But we found out a lot of different stuff that we can use to benefit us."

St. Vincent coach Dusty Wengert said he's OK with his team's confidence level entering today's game.

"I think that these girls have been on a mission to prove to a lot of people that their time is not over yet," he said. "I think if they want to go in there and think Orchard Farm is beatable, then you let them do that. You let them motivate themselves."

Orchard Farm gets most of its scoring from two players. Junior midfielder Alexia Robbers and sophomore forward Brooke Burckhardt have scored 48 of the team's 72 goals (66 percent).

"I compare both of their players to Kinsley Fitzpatrick from De Soto -- someone that can create their own shot," Wengert said. "Someone who can be all over the field and can do a lot of damage if you don't know where she's at on the field."

Senior forward Meghan Boschert is next for Orchard Farm with nine goals.

"Those two girls are very physical and they have a lot of speed," Wengert said. "Outside of that, they're a good high school soccer team. Nobody's getting to this point without being good or probably a little bit of luck along the way."

The Indians' scoring is much more spread out. Junior Abby Lappe leads the way with 16 goals, followed by Holly Blandford, Kayla Seabaugh and French with 12 apiece. They hope to use that balanced attack to return to the state title game and possibly get another shot at Springfield Catholic.

"We are hoping for a rematch, but we're taking it one game at a time," Lappe said. "We're not going to overlook Friday's game or Saturday. We have to focus on Friday more than we can focus on Springfield Catholic."