ST. LOUIS – Grant Locker describes it as “winner’s mentality.”
It involves playing with confidence and striving to improve every day.
“It means coming into every game thinking we’re the better team, and going out and proving it,” said Locker, a senior midfielder.
That mentality was evident Saturday as the Jr. Bills handed Triad its first loss of the season with a convincing 3-0 victory in an interstate battle of soccer powers at SLUH’s Drury Plaza.
SLUH (15-1-1), which won its ninth consecutive game, has not surrendered a goal since a 4-1 loss to De Smet on Sept. 14. That setback proved to be an inspiring event for the Jr. Bills.
“That awakened us,” said senior defender Carl Hurley. “It let us know that we needed to step it up, and so far, we’ve answered that call.”
It only took eight minutes for SLUH to answer the call on Saturday, and as usual, Locker found himself in the middle of a goal-scoring play. He chased down a ball along the right side, made a nifty pull-back maneuver to elude a defender and sent a soft pass to senior Connor Drozda.
Drozda crossed a pass into the box where freshman Padraig Byrne settled it and blasted it past Triad goalkeeper Cortlan Dellamano. It was Byrne’s second goal of the season and first in 14 games, since he scored the game-winner against Glendale on Sept. 4.
“Everybody at school keeps asking me, ‘When’s the next goal,’ and here it is,” Byrne said. “It’s a great feeling.”
Byrne is the lone freshman on a roster chocked full of upperclassmen, including 14 seniors.
“It’s something I’ve never experienced before, everybody driving each other every practice and every game. It’s really been a great experience,” Byrne said.
After the Byrne goal, Triad (16-1-1) settled into the game and played the Jr. Bills equally throughout the remainder of the half.
The outstanding skill of senior midfielder Gibson Hunt helped the Knights enter the offensive zone with speed. The Jr. Bills forced many shot attempts to originate from the perimeter, but Hunt found a cross to his liking and delivered a dangerous shot from inside the box that scooted just wide of the frame.
“We thought (Hunt) was one of the best players we played against all year,” SLUH coach Bob O’Connell said.
But any momentum earned by Triad was quickly extinguished by Locker, who opened the door to an even higher degree of compete level at the start of the second half.
He made a 40-yard run through Triad defenders and into the penalty area before a slide tackle by Knights’ senior Brendan Smith temporarily disengaged the ball from his foot. Locker somehow regained possession seconds later and sent a shot that drifted inches wide.
It was a sequence that exemplified the versatility of Locker, who sent through balls and deep passes to his teammates, controlled possession in the midfield, and weaved through defenders to create scoring chances.
“I thought our energy at the start of each half was really good,” Locker said.
Soon after Locker’s combination of moves, SLUH junior John Hasemeier launched a laser that prompted a splendid, two-handed block over the crossbar by Dellamano and the Jr. Bills had Triad on its heels.
“We’ve had that problem all year where we come out flat to begin the second half, and you can’t do that against a team like this,” Triad coach Jim Jackson said.
A contested header in the midfield bounded towards the Triad defensive end where SLUH sophomore Henry Sanders raced onto it, split the Knights’ defense and scored on a partial breakaway to give the Jr. Bills a 2-0 lead in the 52nd minute.
In the 54th minute, SLUH senior Will Mungenast sent a through-ball that Locker raced on to, collected and delivered an exquisite left-footed finish to increase the lead to 3-0 with his 16th goal of the season.
“Grant is a real special player that we’ve been blessed to have for four years,” O’Connell said. “What is so remarkable is that everybody knows Grant, he hasn’t been a secret for the last couple years, and still he scores different goals, every type of goal we need.”
Led by Hurley and senior Will Wolfe, the SLUH defense completed its 10th consecutive clean sheet by winning head balls, clogging passing lanes and thwarting build-ups before they gained momentum.
“We knew that (Triad) would be very good and that they had a lot of quality. On defense, we just knew we had to play tough, communicate and play our game and we’d be alright,” Hurley said.
Triad, which played its fourth game in six days, saw its 17-game unbeaten streak come to an end on Saturday. Jackson hopes the loss to SLUH serves as a roadmap for where the Knights still need to go.
“We’ll regroup, take a couple days off and get back at it,” Jackson said. “If we’re fortunate enough to get north (during the Illinois state playoffs), we’re going to find teams like this. This is a great learning experience for us.”
SLUH senior goalkeeper Christopher Lewis moved to 13-1-1 for the season with 10 shutouts, and the Jr. Bills have not yielded a goal since their “awakening” on Sept. 14.
“We’ve developed a winning mindset where we know we have to come out and play 100 percent every game. I think that is something that has changed since the De Smet game, and now that we have that mindset, we’re seeing a lot of good product from it,” Locker said.
O’Connell added, “They’re confident, and when we get the effort, we’re pretty hard to beat.”