Seckman’s play in the opening half of its first game set the tone for the rest of pool play in the Lloyd Sullivan Division of the 63rd annual CYC-Bob Guelker Soccer Tournament. Unfortunately, the tone turned sour in the semifinal round.
Serving as host for its opponents in pool play, Seckman won all three games, beating Lutheran South 6-2, St. Pius X 4-0 and Affton 9-0. But just more than three weeks removed from a 3-0 loss to Liberty in the Pacific Tournament, the Jaguars again fell to the team from Wentzville, falling 5-0 in the semifinals Friday at St. Louis Soccer Park in Fenton.
“We talked about making sure we get out of our pool, doing what we needed to do to get to the semifinals, and we felt really good about ourselves getting into the semifinals, but we just hit a wall,” Seckman head coach Tim Bookstaver said. “It’s tough. Four games in four days is always tough, and that’s a good Liberty squad. I just think we lost some mojo in that Friday game, and we need to get through that kind of thing, fight longer in games.”
Or to put it even more simply, play like they did in the opening half against Lutheran South. At halftime of the Sept. 19 contest, Seckman led 3-0, and Bookstaver said he’d be hard-pressed to think of any way his team could have played better.
“That first half against Lutheran South was about as perfect as we could be,” he said.
“We played a very impressive first half against a team that we knew had some really nice players. We came out as a unit and we played well together as a team on defense, we played well together as a team on offense. That was the best 40 minutes that we’ve played all year.”
Ryan Berhorst scored four goals to power the Jaguars, who also got goals from Alec Buol and Cody Eakins. But Bookstaver said it was his team’s defensive effort that really made the difference.
“When we lost the ball that night, it was the best 11-man defense that we’ve seen all year,” Bookstaver said. “We had forwards coming back and playing defense, midfielders doing a great job covering their guys. Everybody really helped out on defense, which is what we need to do all the time. We had all 11 guys out there working together as a unit, and I felt like we really controlled that game from top to bottom.”
Bookstaver said the next day’s opponent, St. Pius X, proved to be a more dangerous opponent, but Trent Haegele finished with eight saves in the game, and the Jaguars got two more goals from Berhorst and one apiece from Dawson Eaton and Brandon Helfrich to win 4-0.
Berhorst found the back of the net twice more in the rout of Affton, giving him 18 for the season. Helfrich also scored a pair, with Buol, Eakins, Eaton, Zach Bates and Danny Shoemaker each scoring for the Jaguars.
The loss to Liberty dropped Seckman to 7-8 heading into games this week at Lafayette on Tuesday and at Bayless on Wednesday, both after the Leader deadline.
Fox shut out in tourney
For Fox, the tournament extended what has already been a difficult season. The Warriors were shut out in all three games of pool play, falling to Alton Marquette (2-0), Washington (6-0) and Liberty (3-0).
Liberty would go on to beat Washington 1-0 in the tournament championship game.
“We didn’t fare very well,” Fox coach Nathan Niehaus said. “We had a tough bracket, and we just couldn’t find the back of the net.”
That’s been an issue all season for the Warriors, who lost their 11th consecutive game and fell to 1-12-2. Fox has been held scoreless in seven straight contests and 10 times overall this season.
“We’ve got some good ball movement, some good ball possession, but it’s that final pass, that last through ball to get by and make a good run at the goal,” Niehaus said. “We have had some good showings, some good spurts, but we’re just not putting it together all the way through to the end.”
Niehaus said the tournament allowed the coaching staff to try some different alignments and put players into new spots in hopes of finding combinations that would click.
“We found some things that did work and some that didn’t, so hopefully we can continue to make some adjustments and move forward in the second half of the season,” he said.
St. Pius also went winless in tournament play, losing to Alton Marquette (5-1), Seckman (4-0) and Washington 4-0). Northwest came away from the tournament with a win and two ties, beating Mascoutah (5-4), while finishing with draws against Bayless (1-1) and Alton (4-4).