for The Examiner, Independence, MO
ST. CHARLES – St. Michael the Archangel sophomore goalkeeper Bennett McClure approached the Class 2 state championship game with the same mindset he employed all season.
“Come out fearless,” McClure said. “Don’t even think about it, just go for it.”
A fearless McClure made four courageous saves to keep the game scoreless at halftime, but Clayton scored three times in a 17-minute span in the second half to defeat St. Michael 3-0 and capture the Class 2 Missouri High School Activities Association state title Thursday at Lindenwood University.
Clayton (20-4), which won its 13th consecutive game, claimed its first boys soccer state title in program history. St. Michael the Archangel (20-5) advanced further than any team in program history and earned its first state trophy.
“It was a lot of fun, a great environment,” senior captain Nick DeVoss said. “It felt so good to know we had a chance to come out here, put on a show and give it our all. And we battled.”
That battle was exemplified by McClure, who had to be incredibly sharp in the opening minutes. Clayton quickly earned two corner kicks and launched two dangerous free kicks that required McClure to leap, dive and slide to keep the Greyhounds off the scoreboard.
In the 16th minute, McClure went airborne and dove full-extension to his left to deny a 17-yard blast from Clayton senior Sam Leonard with his black-gloved hand.
“I thought their goalkeeper was excellent,” Clayton coach Brendan Taylor said.
The Guardians found their offensive footing midway through the first half by playing balls over the top and letting speedy freshman Wesley Medlin chase them down. A nifty passing play set up the 6-foot-4 DeVoss with a great look from 16 yards away that required a sharp save by Clayton goalkeeper Sam Rotskoff.
“They had some really dangerous players. Speed on the wings, solid up the middle, and the big fella up top was kind of giving me nightmares,” Taylor said.
The game entered halftime scoreless, thanks in part by a solid defensive effort and excellent goalkeeping from McClure.
“Constant communication,” McClure said. “I trust my defenders, my center backs, everybody, we’re just talking the entire time.”
Trust was needed in the opening minutes of the second half, when a Clayton pass skidded past McClure and was directed towards the empty net before senior Jonathan Koob threw out his right leg to deflect it away at the goal line.
The heads-up play by Koob kept the game scoreless, but the close call was a precursor of the barrage that was coming.
In the 45th minute, a well-placed corner kick delivery by Wole Adeoye was headed into the net by senior defender Keaton Ramon to open the floodgates. In the 60th minute, Adeoye launched a 50-yard pass that Leonard retrieved and crossed to Niko Vuong to make it 2-0.
Two minutes later, senior Adam Turner dribbled past two defenders and found junior Matthew Hurst, who put the exclamation point on a Clayton three-goal blitz in 16:30 of game time.
“I don’t know if we came out flat or what, but they definitely were the better team in the second half and they took it to us,” St. Michael coach Rob Putthoff said.
St. Michael, which came back from a second half deficit to defeat Orchard Farm in the semifinal the previous night, tried to spark more late game magic.
A 20-yard laser from Medlin clanged the intersection the crossbar and caromed directly down to the goal line before it was cleared away by Rotskoff. Moments later, a cross from Medlin was headed inches over the crossbar by DeVoss.
“We may have had some heavy legs because we were in a battle (with Orchard Farm Wednesday) where we played the guys a lot of minutes, so that may have contributed to the fitness in the second half, but we were still playing hard,” Putthoff said.
St. Michael won its first 14 games of the season before a rash of injuries coupled with strong competition sent the Guardians on a four-game losing streak between Oct. 10-22.
“We knew we weren’t going to stay perfect, there were going to be highs and lows, and that four game losing streak was definitely our low point,” DeVoss said. “We bounced back and made our postseason run that got us here.”
Senior captain Phillip Howard added, “We were underdogs all year. We lost a ton of seniors, and we didn’t know what we were going to have, but we got here and gave it our all.”