For Rebecca Hovatter, it was just another day at the office.
The St. Pius X senior recorded her fifth solo shutout of the season and the 45th of her high school soccer career Saturday as the Lancers blanked Trinity 6-0 in the Ray Beckman Invitational at John Burroughs High.
As in many of her team’s other shutouts over the past four seasons, Hovatter was the loneliest player on the field, watching from afar as her teammates swarmed over the opposing defense. To the untrained eye, it looked like she could have pulled a recliner out to midfield and sipped iced tea for 80 minutes.
But there is more to her style of play than meets the eye. All you have to do is listen.
As she did numerous times on Saturday, Hovatter likes to venture far out from her goal – 30 yards, 40 yards, 45 – to better asses the flow of play and, even more important, to shout instructions to the Lancer defenders and midfielders. Good defense, after all, starts at midfield and you can’t have good defense without communication.
Ronald Reagan was nicknamed “The Great Communicator.” But the late president had nothing on Rebecca Hovatter.
“I shout – I’m very vocal,” she said Saturday before the Lancers took the field. “I want to be involved in the game before the ball even touches me. You can prevent more shots (that way).
“You need good chemistry with your defenders,” Hovatter added. “I respect all positions, but normally I’m talking to defenders and being as vocal as I can, making sure they’re in good position, preventing the ball from coming to me.
“It’s about the win. If I don’t have to touch (the ball) that means our team’s playing well.”
Playing well is the hallmark of a Lancer soccer program that won four consecutive state trophies under retired Missouri State High School Soccer Coaches Hall of Fame coach Dan Bokern, starting with the Class 1 state championship in 2012. St. Pius placed second in 2013 and third in 2014 and 2015 (the latter season in Class 2). Hovatter was the goalkeeper for the two third-place squads and earned first-team all-state honors both years.
Her freshman season of 2014 – the one she calls her favorite at St. Pius – she played with older sister (and fellow all-state selection) Christina Hovatter right in front of her at center back.
The Lancer keeper won first-team all-state honors again last year even though St. Pius was eliminated by Notre Dame (Cape Girardeau) in the Class 2 District 1 final.
The Lancers have an opportunity to avenge that loss when Notre Dame hosts the district tournament again starting Saturday. St. Pius (10-6) is the No. 2 seed, facing No. 3 Fredericktown (7-8) at 12:30 p.m. A win puts St. Pius back in the final against either top-seeded Notre Dame (15-1) or No. 4 Perryville (3-13).
St. Pius is doing what all prep sports teams hope to do – play its best going into the postseason. And Hovatter is a big reason why.
Head coach Kevin Halley, who assisted Bokern on those four state-trophy teams, appreciates his keeper as only a coach can.
“She’s been a leader by example and a leader by voice,” Halley said after the win Saturday. “If you’re at one of our games and you can’t hear her, then you probably need to have your hearing checked. She communicates exceptionally well with her defenders and her teammates and she does a really good job of managing the game behind her.”
Halley added that Hovatter is one of the most fundamentally sound keepers he has ever seen.
“She’s a very technical goalkeeper; she does everything right,” he said. “And she’s a good person, good to her teammates. You can’t ask for much more back there than that.”
Hovatter’s penchant for moving far out from her goal might make some coaches nervous, but not Halley.
“I trust her back there because she knows what she’s doing,” Halley said. “There are times I’ll want to say something to one of the backs, and right before I say it, Becca’s already said it. I have ultimate faith in her and the decisions she makes back there.”
The career statistics for Hovatter, a four-year Lancer starter, speak for themselves. Her overall record, through Saturday’s win, is 69-17. She’s allowed 61 goals in 86 games and has a goals-against average of 0.69. And she’s made 426 saves, more than 100 per season.
She’s done it despite lacking one of the supposed prerequisites of a successful goalie – height. At 5-5, she’s a full five inches shorter than her predecessor in the Lancer goal, Holly Magre, who went 74-7 with 42 solo shutouts in three seasons, including the state title campaign of 2012.
Hovatter compensates not only through communication but with her speed.
“My first thing is quickness – come out and get to the ball before their forward (does),” she said. “Everyone says, ‘Goalkeepers are so slow,’ and I would go, ‘I’m going to prove you wrong.’ So I would run cross country and run sprints just because I am short and I had to make it up somewhere.”
Positioning herself and the defenders makes a difference, too.
“It’s all about angles,” she said.
Hovatter had all kinds of angles available for college soccer, but to the surprise of many, she has decided, at least for now, to step away from the game and be a full-time student. She plans to attend the University of Missouri at St. Louis and major in economics with a double minor of general business and Japanese. Beyond that, she aspires to a master’s degree in international business.
Including her select soccer experience with the St. Louis Scott Gallagher organization, Hovatter has played in goal full-time since she was 11. She said that she believes being a goalkeeper took her farther in the sport than if she had played in the field. But she doesn’t want to make a four-year commitment to a college program – not with the prospect of carrying 18 hours of coursework every semester.
“I’m going more the career route now,” she said, but added that she’s keeping her options open and has talked to the UMSL head coach, Wendy Dillinger, about walking on with the Tritons if she ends up missing the game.
“The door is definitely not closed completely,” she said. “I’m just going take the first semester of college and see how that goes.” Her mom, she added, “isn’t mad at me – but she wants to see me play.”