LADUE – Jose Sanchez was not interested in waiting.
Late in the second half, the Ladue junior lined up a free kick from 25 yards away against rival Clayton. The Inner-Belt Derby was still scoreless, the championship belt was still unclaimed and the Greyhounds’ wall was still forming, much closer than the 10-yard distance required.
The Ladue coaches saw the situation and began calling for the Clayton wall to be moved back.
Sanchez didn’t see an issue.
“The wall was maybe six yards away,” Sanchez said. “I just stepped up and hit it over the wall. Sometimes, you know when it comes off your foot, it’s going to be a good shot, and it felt nice.”
Sanchez’s beautiful bender snuck inside the near post and provided the game-winner for Ladue in a thrilling 1-0 victory over Clayton in a battle of defending state champions Thursday at Ladue High School.
Ladue (10-1), the defending Class 3 champion, won the Inner-Belt Derby championship belt for the first time, after Clayton wore the prize around its waist the previous two times it was awarded.
“Before the game, we said, ‘This is going to be our best warmup of the year. Everything is going to be done the best we can,” said senior Jordan Oiknine, explaining the importance of the belt.
Clayton (5-4-1), the defending Class 2 champion, lost 11 players from its state title team, and gave the No. 1-ranked Rams all they could handle.
“We played well today. Our defense held strong, and that game could have gone either way,” senior Niko Vuong said. “Even though we lost a lot of players, other guys have stepped into big roles and filled them well. I’m excited to see what we can do the rest of the season.”
After an evenly-played first 40 minutes, Ladue began to tilt the field in its favor in the second half, but a quick counter by Clayton with under 10 minutes remaining created the best scoring chance for the Greyhounds.
Reminiscent of the slick tic-tac-toe passing plays that resulted in three goals in the 2024 state title game against St. Michael the Archangel, Matthew Hurst, Jack McAndrew and Vuong performed a three-man weave that broke wide open, but the final pass missed a final touch by inches.
Moments later Ladue countered, and senior Benny Kibombi was fouled as he battled for a ball just outside the box. Sanchez, who leads the Rams with nine goals including three on set pieces, wasted little time in launching his 25-yard game-winner.
“A perfect shot – unsavable,” Ladue coach David Aronberg said.
Saving was not much of an issue for Ladue junior goalie Roa Eydelman, who stepped in between the pipes for starter Seaton Thompson, a Mizzou baseball commit who was in Texas for a baseball tournament.
Eydelman needed to make only three saves thanks to an outstanding defensive effort by the Rams, led by seniors Marc Proskey and Jeha Hwang and junior Jared Snyder.
“We knew we would have to communicate well and make no mistakes in the back, and I thought we did a good job capitalizing and not allowing many chances,” Snyder said.
Conversely, Clayton goalkeeper Nathaniel Booth was extremely busy. Booth made 11 saves, several from point blank range to keep the game scoreless.
In the first half, a beautiful cross by Hwang was blasted goalward by senior Owen Prange from eight yards away, but an instinctual, diving stop by Booth kept it out of the net. Later, a perfect feed from senior Keegan Cody to senior Alex Du was somehow smothered by the quick reaction of Booth.
“It could have been two or three. Their keeper made a couple really nice saves to keep it scoreless, and I’m sure they were like, ‘Let’s go to OT or PKs and who knows?’ but I was glad we just stuck with it,” Aronberg said.
Ladue began to apply wave upon wave of pressure in the second half, but slide tackles and blocked shots from Clayton seniors Nathan Cross, Chase Rubin and Matthew Hurst along with junior David Kerschensteiner denied the Rams from scoring.
“Credit to them for fighting and blocking and doing those things, but we kept having to work hard because we put ourselves in those positions,” Clayton coach Brendan Taylor said. “We got caught really deep, couldn’t get the steps we needed, and allowed them to get back at us too quickly. It was a good lesson to learn about how to properly defend against a quality opponent. We’ll take those lessons and we’ll move on.”
Ladue is learning the lesson of how to be the hunted instead of the hunter this season. As a Class 3 state finalist in 2023 and state champion in 2024, the Rams came from the middle of the pack to emerge as title contenders. This year, Ladue is ranked as the top team in the St. Louis area regardless of class and is feeling what that entails.
“It’s a little crazy. Honestly, we talked to the kids in the summer to get their mindset ready for this year. I knew teams were going to come after us. We had some friendlies, and in the friendlies, teams were coming after us,” Aronberg said. “We get the other team’s best game every single time and that’s a very different feeling than being the underdog. But they’ve embraced it.”
Sanchez added, “Being ranked No. 1, we have the same mentality. Regardless of the (opponent), we play with the intensity like it’s the state championship.”
For a Photo Gallery from this game, visit: https://benvessa.smugmug.com/Boys-Soccer/Boys-Soccer-2025/Clayton-at-Ladue-Inner-Belt-Derby-9-18-25
