Perryville boys soccer team nets district title

FESTUS, Mo. -- Before top-seeded Perryville took the field against host St. Pius X on Thursday in the Class 2 District 1 championship game, Perryville coach Jerry Fulton challenged the Pirates to get a lead on the second-seeded Lancers in the first half.

The Pirates missed several opportunities to go ahead early, and a tie at halftime appeared to be imminent.

That was the case until Perryville senior Luke Schlichting stole a pass at midfield and raced down the left sideline before crossing it to Michael Volansky in the St. Pius box. Volansky one-timed his shot to the top of the goal, but it ricocheted off the crossbar and bounced to the right of the net.

The ball was nearly cleared by a St. Pius defender until Eann Bergman raced into the box, headed the rebound into the back of the net to give the Pirates a lead with 54 seconds to play in the first half.

Bergman's goal was all Perryville (25-1) needed. The Pirates held on to defeat St. Pius (18-3-2) 1-0 and captured their third straight district title.

Perryville's Kyle Wood runs against a St. Pius X player in the second half of the Class 2 District 1 championship Thursday, Oct. 30, 2014 in Festus, Missouri. (Glenn Landberg)

"That was the most important part of the game for us," Fulton said. "I would have preferred for it to happen much earlier than that, but a goal is a lead and a momentum swing. Luckily the guys stayed focused, kept after it and did what they wanted. They've approached this season one game at a time all year, and it was no different preparing for Pius."

The win marked a familiar feeling for over half of the Pirates roster, which have experienced at least two district titles. Schlichting, one of two senior captains for the Pirates, has been a member of three district champions.

Perryville lost to Windsor in the sectional round of the 2012 Class 2 tournament and dropped a 3-1 decision to St. Mary's in the 2013 quarterfinal round, which is the farthest the Pirates have advanced in the seven-year history of the program.

Schlichting said the Pirates style of play has not changed from previous seasons, but to get to a state championship game, they're changing their mindset.

"I know a lot of the guys on this team, including myself, have worked year-round just to get ready for these big games," Schlichting said. "In past years, it was more of a let's-try-to-make-it-to-state mentality, and this year it's been all about taking it one game at a time, and as you can see it's been working well for us. I think that has helped us to not get too far ahead of ourselves. We're keeping a balanced and clear task list of what we need to do to reach our ultimate goal of winning a state championship."

"Pius is over so we're going to enjoy it for the next 24 hours, and after that it's going to be the next game and that's it. Only the next game."

St. Pius coach Dan Bokern said the game wasn't out of reach from that point on, his team just couldn't capitalize on scoring chances.

"You have the whole half after that coming, and we had been down before," Bokern said after Perryville took the lead. "We've come back a lot this year. We just couldn't do it {today]."

Perryville appeared to have taken a 1-0 lead with 11 minutes left in the half when Schlichting stole a pass in the Lancers' zone and made a perfect pass to Kyle Wood, who was charging across the box and fired the ball into the net. However, the referee ruled Wood offsides and the goal did not count.

"I can't tell if Kyle Wood was offsides from my point of view," Fulton said. "It appeared he wasn't, and he swears up and down he wasn't, but the official is there so there's nothing I can do about that."

During the first minute of the second half, Schlichting found Bergman on a crossing pass. Bergman was wide open in the middle of the box and took a shot right on goal, but it was saved and cleared by St. Pius.

Bergman said he and Schlichting have worked well together all season on that crossing play.

"It's kind of our go-to play and we practice it just about every day," Bergman said. "It's not always me. Sometimes it's Volansky or whoever, but we just work so well together. The way we feed each other the ball, whether it's one, two touches or whatever, seem to be working really well this year. That was huge for us to be able to attack the net tonight and put them away."

St. Pius had more chances to score late in the game, and even outshot the Pirates 8-6 in the game, but many of its shots went wide or were blocked by Perryville defenders.

"I don't know that we got a real clean or hard shot off in that stretch," Bokern said. "We had a lot of chances, but none of those shots had the velocity or the accuracy to really be close to goals."

Bokern wished the Pirates luck.

"I'm hoping Perryville goes on and wins state. They've got a very good chance," Bokern said. "We've beaten most of the teams in the district that they're going to face. From what I saw tonight, they're a very dangerous team that could move through rounds."

Perryville will face the winner of the Class 2 District 2 championship between Bayless (13-11-2 ) in a sectional Tuesday. Bayless defeated Hancock (14-7-1) in a semifinal game Thursday.

Fulton has preached focus to his team all season and said it couldn't be more important than right now.

"Focus is the key to everything in this game," Fulton said. "We needed it all season, we needed it tonight, and we will continue to need it. As soon as you lose it, another team will come up and bite you. I haven't seen these guys more focused than right now, and we just need four more games of it."