Senior forward Stephen Pryk continued a long streak of 20-goal scorers on the Northwest boys soccer team when he collected four goals in a 5-1 win over visiting Fox on Oct. 8.
The Lions improved to 18-1 this season after beating Eureka 5-2 on Tuesday and have won nine straight games since losing to St. Louis University High 7-0 on Sept. 19. Pryk (pronounced prike) scored his 21st goal and had three assists against the Wildcats and joins senior teammate Tyler Finder (26 goals in 2021 and 14 this season), and Northwest graduates Logan Christopher (24 goals in 2016), Brandon O’Dell (24 in 2017 and 21 in 2019), Joe Noah (35 in 2018 and 25 in 2019) and Hayden Hatley (24 in 2020) in the school’s 20-goal club.
But for Pryk, all those tallies serve a higher purpose.
“My goal is to win districts,” he said. “The goals come along with that. I don’t care who scores, as long as we’re winning.”
Northwest head coach Dave Willis celebrated his 200th victory with the boys team earlier this season and enjoyed a victory celebration against the Warriors (5-14) on his 40th birthday. Willis said despite the Lions’ winning streak and Pryk’s scoring barrage against Fox, he’s been pressing too much offensively in recent games.
“He’s trying to do a little bit too much,” Willis said. “Today, he played a little more simple. He laid the ball off and relocated to better spots and was able to get the ball in better positions. That’s going to be a blueprint for him. He’s a goal scorer.”
Fox, missing injured junior midfielders Aldin Zibanovic and Gus Schoenerg, among other players, has lost seven straight games. Even with a full complement of players, Fox head coach Nathan Niehaus knew beating the Lions on their home field was going to be a challenge.
“We’re getting a few back, but it’s tough with a short bench,” Niehaus said. “They’re a quality team. (Pryk) is a quality player. They did their job. We held them off and did some good things ourselves. We need to keep progressing.”
Finder opened the scoring at 2:58 when his shot beat Fox goalkeeper Drew Harris. It took Fox only about two minutes to answer when junior forward Carter Jackson took a throw-in, dribbled quickly toward the Northwest goal and unleashed a shot past Lion junior all-state keeper Alex Drexler to tie the game 1-1.
“It was a nice little counterattack,” Niehaus said. “It was one of Carter’s quality moves where he turns the defender really well. He got the throw-in, turned the defender and put it away.”
Willis didn’t like his defense allowing a goal off a throw-in.
“That’s a no-no,” he said. “Every time we play Fox, they play hard and I know we have a target on our back. We scored early and our backs fell asleep. You should never get beat on a throw-in. That made me very unhappy and we talked about that at halftime.”
Pryk gave the Lions a 2-1 lead at 7:23, and then made it 3-1 when he dribbled almost parallel with the Fox goal and blasted a sideways shot past Harris at 30:57.
“Once we get inside the 15-yard line, I don’t think anyone can stop our wing players and attackers,” Pryk said. “We’re too quick and good with the ball.”
“He beats guys off the dribble,” Willis said. “I don’t want him to fall in love with the dribble because he can’t do that against everyone. Today, he was able to pull that off and hit a perfect finish.”
Pryk completed his second hat trick of the season after beating Harris with a penalty kick at 45:47 to make it 4-1. He punched in his season-high fourth goal at 63:26, and had a fifth tally nullified by an offside call. Pryk scored three goals against Jackson on Sept. 14.
“I missed a PK against Oakville, so honestly, the big thing is confidence and practice hitting the corners (of the goal),” Pryk said.
Beside Fox’s only goal, Drexler was tested several times and his highlight save was reaching high over his head to push a shot over the crossbar.
“You can’t beat Alex high or low,” Willis said. “The only goals he’s given up this year, for the most part have been penalty kicks. He’s been a rock star. He owns the ball in the air off corner kicks and long throw-ins. He masks a lot of deficiencies our team has because it takes such a good shot to beat him.”
Northwest is 5-0 in the Suburban Conference Orange pool and hosts Clayton (3-0) today (Oct. 13). The Lions and Warriors could meet again because they’re both in the upcoming Class 4 District 1 tournament at Lindbergh.
Any coach would be proud of an undefeated season. But the loss to SLUH taught Willis and his players lessons that will help them in the postseason. Jackson, also in District 1, won the Class 4 state title in 2020 and finished second a year ago.
“(Against SLUH) we learned how we defend as a team,” Willis said. “We watched the film and we were too spread out and they were too skilled, so they were able to pick us apart through the middle of the field.”
The other thing was our backs needed to play with a little confidence on the ball. In this game (vs. Fox), when our backs got the ball, it wasn’t panic kicking. When they didn’t have the pass forward, they started using Drexler as a release valve.”