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Sports

Fort Zumwalt South Soccer Can't Hold Off Nationally-ranked SLUH

Fiesty Bulldogs battled hard against No. 9 team in nation, but still suffer 2-1 loss.

Instead of worrying about the possibility of getting beat Thursday night by nationally-ranked Saint Louis University High, boys soccer coach Jim Layne only concerned himself with a plan he thought could help his Bulldogs knock off the Jr. Billikens.

Layne firmly believed that if South could stay even through the first half with SLUH, which was tabbed the No. 9 team in the nation in this week’s ESPN/Powerade Fab 50 national soccer rankings, the Bulldogs would have a great chance to pull out a win by outplaying the Jr. Bills in the second half.

And it almost worked. Zumwalt South dominated play for the final 20 minutes of the game.

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Unfortunately, SLUH controlled the action through the entire first half and for the early stages of the second half, netting two goals against the Bulldogs, which proved to be enough for a 2-1 Jr. Bill win.

“We always seem to do well against teams like SLUH,” Layne said following the loss. “I don’t know what it is, but our boys came to play. They’re a great team. We knew it would be tough going against them.”

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Nor was it impossible, and thanks to a brilliant flurry of scoring attempts in the final 10 minutes, the Bulldogs nearly forced overtime against a team many consider the best team in the land not based in California or on the east coast.

SLUH did jump out to a 2-0 lead, after a fast start at the beginning of the second half, led to goals by seniors Joe Jedlicka and Paul Buehler.

For the two Jr. Bill standouts, it was Jedlicka’s second goal of the season, and Buehler’s third.

But the turning point in the game came about midway through the second half, when a shoving match between SLUH’s Joe Rund and popular Zumwalt South junior Juan “Tuey” Lopez led to a stoppage in play where officials warned both teams to control their emotions better.

SLUH seemed to tone down its emotion and effort following the scrum, while South only seemed to get more fired up, and began to take control of the action.

First, the Bulldogs' Alex Clark beat SLUH’s Rund to a ball inside the Jr. Bill box, forcing Rund to take Clark down, which gave the Bulldogs a penalty kick and a golden scoring chance with less than 10 minutes left.

South senior Austin Andrews did the honors on the penalty kick and blasted a brilliant shot past SLUH goalkeeper Guillaume Delabar for his first goal of the season, which cut the Bulldog deficit to 2-1.

“(That was) a great shot by Austin,” Layne said. “The penalty kick was well-deserved, and Austin made sure not to miss. Once we got that one, we felt like we could get another one.”

And they nearly did, when Zumwalt South’s Jake Reinsmith out-jumped everyone on the field, and steered a header off a centering pass toward the SLUH net.

Somehow though, Delabar managed to get a fingertip on the shot, and tapped it over the net for a game-saving stop that might be as fine a play as anyone makes all season.

“If that ball goes in, who knows what could happen,” Layne said. “We get into overtime and it’s anybody’s game. We were so close. I’m so proud of how these kids battled out here tonight.”

The defeat, as close as it was to a tie or possibly a victory, did drop the Bulldogs to 0-2 on the season though, after they lost their season opener 1-0 to Francis Howell North on Tuesday.

South will be looking for its first win of the year, this coming Thursday, September 8, when it will host Lafayette High at Jack Ball Stadium.

The Lancers are 2-0 currently, and will have played two more games by the time Thursday’s meeting at South rolls around.

Opening kick-off at Jack Ball that night is set for 7 p.m.

 

SCORING SUMMARY

Score by Halves

F

St. Louis U. High

0

2

 

 

 

 

2

Fort Zumwalt South

0

1

 

 

 

 

1



First Half

NO SCORING

Second Half

SLUH: Joe Jedlicka (assisted by Paul Buehler) 38:53  —    1-0

SLUH: Paul Buehler (assisted by Joe Gasperoni) 21:17 —  2-0

FZS: Austin Andrews (penalty kick) 8:25 — 2-1

 

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