KIRKWOOD – Reece Fuller had played enough defense.
The Clayton junior spent the entirety of the first overtime chasing cutters and pressuring shooters, so when he obtained a ground ball early in the second overtime, he had no intention of slowing down.
“I had nobody on my back, and I had room in front of me,” Fuller said.
Fuller drove to the goal before dishing a pass to senior Adrien Shor-Perrier, who deposited the sudden-victory, game-winner as Clayton defeated Kirkwood 10-9 in a double overtime thriller Monday at Kirkwood High.
Clayton (5-5), which avenged a narrow playoff loss to Kirkwood from last season, snapped a four-game losing streak to the Pioneers, including two one-goal heartbreakers. The Greyhounds were 0-2 in games decided by two goals or fewer this season.
“This boosts our morale a lot,” Fuller said. “We’ve had a couple close games we haven’t been able to finish out. It feels good to win a game like this.”
That win seemed improbable when the Greyhounds entered the fourth quarter trailing 9-6. Clayton senior Jack Zimmerman, who scored four goals in the first half, was effectively defended by the positioning and physicality of Kirkwood junior Gavin Jansen, and the Pioneers carried a streak of four consecutive goals into the final frame.
“Going into the fourth quarter, we really wanted to focus on utilizing a team offense,” Clayton coach Andy Stanley said. “They started to focus on (Zimmerman) and limit his options, so we used him more as a decoy and a facilitator and tried to use other people offensively.
One of those people was Fuller, who had been held scoreless through three quarters. He drove through the teeth of the Kirkwood defense to break a lengthy Clayton scoring drought. Then, after Zimmerman escaped for his fifth goal, Fuller tied the game at 9 with another deft dodge from the top of the formation with 4:21 remaining.
“I noticed if I dodged from up high, I could get some time and space, get my hands open and shoot far side, which I’ve been practicing a lot,” Fuller said.
Strong saves by both goalies -Kirkwood senior Jed Holiday and Clayton freshman Henry Mertz -and a dinged post by Kirkwood junior Cooper Terry sent the game into its first overtime.
After a faceoff win by J. Kelly Swarts, the Pioneers settled in on offense for almost the entirety of the four-minute OT session. Clayton defenders forced six shots from the perimeter to sail wide of target, and a tremendous stick save by Mertz helped force a second overtime.
“We knew they were going to set up in a 1-4-1 and get shooters out wide to try to mess up our zone defense,” Fuller said. “We had to get right on their hands as soon as they got the ball.”
That zone defense was extremely effective for Clayton – despite being brand new.
“Funny story. We implemented a new defense before the game today. I drew it up on the chalkboard and they learned it, and by overtime, they understood what I really wanted,” Stanley said.
The faceoff that launched the second overtime period was flipped, batted, kicked and pushed before the ball found a home in the webbing of Fuller’s stick.
“I saw the ball drop on the ground and I knew the defense was going to push it up, so I stayed up a little higher and they pushed it straight towards me,” Fuller said.
With a midfielder substitution in progress, Fuller escaped on a 5-on-3 fast break with no intention of setting up the offense. He forced the Kirkwood defenders to collapse to him and then fed a perfect pass to Shor-Perrier, who fired home the game-winner from just outside the goal crease.
“It felt great. I was happy to score that one,” Shor-Perrier said.
The scoring for Clayton in the first half was done mostly by the same player, despite wearing two different uniform numbers. Having forgotten his jersey at home, Zimmerman donned No. 30 and scored twice in the first quarter, then, after obtaining his normal No. 7, pocketed another pair of goals in the second quarter to help the Greyhounds open a 5-3 lead.
“We really showed up,” Zimmerman said. “We were passing, looking for the open guy, and I was able to bury it.”
Kirkwood (5-5) knotted the score at 5 with goals from senior London Kenter and sophomore Caleb Grote, and when junior Cooper Terry scored twice to open the second half, including a nifty, behind-the-back shot, the Pioneers seemed to seize control of the game heading into the fourth.
“For us, it’s just playing a full 48 minutes of lacrosse,” Kirkwood coach Chris Luckett said of the Pioneers, which graduated 15 seniors from last year’s Class 1 state championship team. “We’re a young team and we don’t have a lot of in-game, varsity experience. If teams drag us out into the later rounds, we’re not necessarily built for it like we used to be.”
And for the Greyhounds, the ability to get off the mat, rally, and seize victory from the claws of defeat is proof of their development as a team.
“A lot of our games have been close ones. We had to step up our mentality, and today we played all the way through the entire game,” Shor-Perrier said.
Zimmerman added, “To come back and win this one is really big. We have goals, and this is a big boost.”
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Additional photos at metro_sports_stl Instagram.
