FESTUS –Abby Miller played in her first district championship game on Wednesday.
One of four freshman starters on a St. Pius X team that earned state runner-up honors in Class 1 last season, Miller thought the Lancers had more to give as they entered halftime in a scoreless duel with defending state-placer Perryville.
“I was frustrated that we were not getting a lot on attack. We weren’t going and being aggressive with the ball in the box,” Miller said. “Coming into the second half, I really wanted to bring the energy up.”
Miller tilted the field with a pair of aggressive runs into the box, and moments later, Riley Cappozzo scored the game-winning goal as St. Pius X defeated Perryville 1-0 in the Class 2 District 1 championship game Wednesday at Father Dalton Stadium on the campus of St. Pius X.
St. Pius X (20-5-1) advanced to a Class 2 quarterfinal and will face either Clayton or St. Charles on Saturday, May 27 at a time and location to be determined.
Clayton (9-10) and St. Charles (8-12) square off for the District 2 title at 5:45 p.m. Thursday, May 18 at Gay Field in Clayton.
The Missouri state semifinals and finals in girls soccer will occur June 2-3 at Soccer Park in Fenton.
Perryville (16-4), which placed fourth in Class 2 last season, had defeated St. Pius X in overtime on May 1, thus winning the Jefferson County Conference title and earning the top seed in the District 1 tournament.
“Going into the game, we knew we needed to score first because (Perryville) is a really good team,” St. Pius X junior Emily Vatterott said.
That plan almost vanished moments after kickoff when Perryville senior Carlie Holdman escaped behind the Lancers’ defense and rang a shot off the left post 2 minutes 37 seconds into the match.
The Pirates earned their first corner kick less than two minutes later.
“If we get one of those (goals) early, it’s a totally different game,” Perryville coach Jerry Fulton said. “Unfortunately, one just hit the post and went out instead of in.”
Most of the first half was a battle for possession in the midfield, with neither team yielding scoring chances, but in the final minutes, St. Pius X began to find a rhythm offensively.
Junior Brooke Madden won a ball in the midfield and sent it ahead to junior Sophie Senkel who earned a corner kick. On that corner attempt, Vatterott sent a dangerous ball into the box resulting in a scrum in front of the goal that was eventually cleared by Perryville.
The dangerous corner attempt was a precursor of what was to come.
Before the end of the first half, a left-footed cross by Senkel was intercepted in the box by Perryville junior goalie Brooklyn Moll, and another St. Pius X corner attempt was negated by a foul.
“I thought it started to turn with about 10 minutes left in the first half. We started to get control, and that led to several corners,” St. Pius X coach Aaron Portell said. “I told them at halftime, ‘If we keep pressing and keep getting those corners, we’re going to score on a corner.’”
That second half pressure began with Miller. Twice she maneuvered past a defender and galloped down the left sideline. Her second jaunt into Pirates’ territory resulted in a corner kick.
“We were connecting really well whenever we got it out of the back. We connected with our middles, and then we played wide. We were able to attack off the width,” Miller said.
Two minutes later, a strong move by Senkel down the right side earned the corner kick opportunity that made Portell’s prediction come true.
Standing at the corner flag, Senkel dropped a short pass to Vatterott, who picked out a spot in the center of the box.
“When I looked up, I saw that there was a hole between two of their green (jerseys) and that’s where I placed it, hoping that somebody would run on to it,” Vatterott said.
And like a burst of lightning, that somebody was senior Riley Cappozzo, who started her run from outside the box, struck the ball with her right foot before it touched the ground and popped it into the goal.
“Emily played a beautiful ball and I was there to touch it in,” Cappozzo said.
The goal occurred in the 54th minute, leaving plenty of time for Perryville to find the equalizer.
Abby Miller changed from an offensive midfielder to a defensive midfielder, and the combination of her twin sister Emma Miller and sophomores Mackenzie Gudic and Bridget Flanagan created an impenetrable line of defense for the Lancers.
Flanagan blocked a heavy shot from Perryville sophomore Caroline Gremaud, then turned around a well-paced long ball sent by Gremaud that appeared to be destined for speedy, 27-goal scorer, senior Kyla Schnurbusch.
In the final 10 minutes, St. Pius X sophomore goalie Mary Hrdlicka denied a tricky shot by Schnurbusch that changed direction after being deflected by a defender. Then, Hrdlicka arrived at the top of the box moments before a streaking Schnurbusch and booted away a dangerous, 50-50 ball with a perfectly-timed slide.
“We added an extra defender, and we were just going to hunker down and defend that last 26 minutes,” Portell said. “(Perryville) possessed a little bit more but they could never break through.”
The breakthrough performance instead came from freshman Abby Miller, whose combination of skill and energy provided the spark the Lancers needed in the second half.
“Abby, at times, really stood out as taking over the game,” Portell said.
St. Pius X, which won its sixth consecutive game, reached the 20-win mark for the first time since 2015, when the Lancers went 26-2 and placed third in Class 2.
According to Cappozzo, the sting of the overtime loss against Perryville on May 1 helped the team refocus and understand how it needed to play on Wednesday.
“I think that loss motivated us to come out and play even harder this game,” Cappozzo said. “I’m really proud of us.”
