TOWN AND COUNTRY – Terry Michler has the most wins of any coach in high school soccer history, but it was a tie that had the CBC legend wiping away tears on Saturday.
Facing Lindbergh, a team that defeated the Cadets by six goals earlier this month, CBC put forth a masterful defensive performance and earned a 0-0 draw to win Pool D and advance to the STL Champions League semifinals.
“It was a real emotional win for the team and for me. To know that they could go from six goals down and knock it down to zero was impressive. It brought me to tears, to be honest,” Michler said.
The Champions League semifinals will be played Wednesday, Oct. 16 at Liberty High School. Pool A winner De Smet (10-1-1) will play Pool B champion Liberty (8-1) at 5 p.m. Pool C winner St. Dominic will face Pool D winner CBC (8-5) at 7 p.m.
The championship match is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 at Creve Coeur Soccer Complex in Maryland Heights.
The Cadets had an 0-2 record when they entered their first meeting with Lindbergh on Sept. 5 and received a thorough, 6-0 thumping from a Flyers’ team that placed third in Class 4 last season.
Sophomore goalkeeper Stone DeGreeff fished four Lindbergh goals out of the net that day.
“We had a lot of regret, a lot of disappointment. We didn’t execute the way we needed to,” DeGreeff said. “It was a wakeup call for sure. For some people, it might bring their confidence down, but for me, I felt it brought my confidence up. I bounced back.”
DeGreeff showed his increased confidence Saturday, gobbling up long, over-the-top passes and decisively attacking Lindbergh set pieces.
“I know I’m the only one who’s able to use my hands, so any ball I see that I want, I’m going to get it. That’s my mentality,” said DeGreeff, who was credited with four saves.
Knowing that Lindbergh needed a win to advance, CBC utilized a four-back alignment with seniors Logan Hartsell and Kaden Ellis patrolling the center of the defense. Hartsell denied passes on the ground and Ellis controlled the airspace as the Cadets limited quality scoring chances throughout the contest.
“They like to play the long ball and I’m really good in the air, attacking balls and not letting them get past me. That’s my specialty,” Ellis said.
In the first half, CBC earned more corner kick opportunities and matched the possession time of the Flyers, but neither team was able to generate high-quality scoring chances.
“We had some possessions that we didn’t develop a little bit further, and I told them at halftime that there were two elements – we were buying time and keeping them from having the ball,” Michler said.
Lindbergh had the benefit of the wind in the second half and quickly earned two corner kicks. On the second one, a cross by Adis Keranovic was flicked further by the head John Eckrich and blasted goalward by Nick Tallevast, but an excellent block by CBC junior Parker Jetton prevented it from arriving on net.
With 15 minutes remaining, a strong run by Lindbergh senior Hassan Al-Maliki was thwarted by a perfectly timed slide tackle in the box by Ellis. The Flyers earned six set pieces in the final 12 minutes, but the leaping DeGreeff either snatched the ball out of the air or punched it away.
“I give them a lot of credit, their boys played well. It was a good, hard-fought game, a pretty even contest,” Lindbergh coach Jake Pittroff said. “We kept them off the scoresheet, which was part of our objective, but we needed to get a goal and we didn’t.”
And it was the prevention of a goal, after yielding six to the Flyers just 23 days earlier, that had Michler wiping away tears prior to the celebratory team photo.
“The growth I’ve seen in these kids, how determined they were, how much this meant to them, and how much (effort) they were willing to put out to get it done – it just really shook me in a positive way,” Michler said.
Full photo gallery from this match and others can be found at https://benvessa.smugmug.com/Boys-Soccer/Boys-Soccer-2024.
