Central faces a St. Louis power in sectional

For the second straight year the Central Tigers will meet a St. Louis soccer powerhouse in a boys' sectional playoff game.

The Tigers host St. Louis University High (22-3-2), ranked second among St. Louis-area large schools behind state favorite Chaminade, at 7 p.m. today at Houck Stadium. The Junior Billikens are coming off of a 1-0 overtime victory over CBC in the Class 3, District 2 championship game.

Central coach Tom Doyle said although his team has not played anyone ranked as highly as SLUH, he's confident his team can match up with the Junior Billikens.

"Right now there are no slouches," Doyle said of the 16-team sectional field. "You're not going to play anyone that's a weak sister."

For Central, a key will be the play of its defense, coming off of a 5-3 win over Poplar Bluff in the Class 3, District 1 championship game.

"Our defense has to be there," senior captain Whit Lynn said. "We have to shut them down."

The defense could be without one of its main components since sweeper Josh Fee is questionable for the game. Fee, who missed last year's sectional against DeSmet with an injury, was injured in the district championship game.

"If there's any way at all he can play, he'll play," Doyle said of his injured defender.

Central's defense will have to contend with the Junior Billikens' scoring duo of Joe Germanese and Adam Twellman, who have 18 and 15 goals, respectively. Central will counter with 29-goal scorer Heath Orr, along with Lynn and Grant Hengst, who have 10 and nine goals, respectively.

"We just have to play our game and we'll be good," Hengst said.

With eight district championships in 11 years, Doyle and his Tigers are still looking for their first sectional victory.

"We're the underdogs," Doyle said. "We're used to being the underdogs when we play in St. Louis."

This year the Tigers won't have to travel to St. Louis, and that's something Doyle said could work to their advantage.

"They're not used to traveling 100 miles to play a game," Doyle said of SLUH. "It's different, it's not what you normally do. The idea of them coming here to Cape will be a little help."

Bulldogs on the road

In Class 2, Notre Dame will travel to Fenton to take on the Rosary Rebels (9-12-5) in a 6 p.m. quarterfinal game. Rosary has a balanced scoring attack led by Charlie Dailey with 11 goals.

The Bulldogs will not have to worry about two-time defending state champion St. Mary's, which eliminated Notre Dame the past two years. St. Mary's is in Class 3 this year.

jjoffray@semissourian.com

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