For Perryville soccer coach Dwayne Hadler, this season has been a good one — even if it was a little rough at times.
The Lady Pirates (8-8) lost 1-0 to Saxony Lutheran (9-8) in the first round of the Class 2, District 1 tournament on May 20 — the Lady Crusaders would fall in the second round, losing 6-0 to St. Pius X — but despite that, Hadler said he’s in a positive place about the season.
“It was a very enjoyable season for me,” Hadler said. “I really thought it could go the other way. I know that sounds selfish, but I thought with all of the injuries and the adversity that it wouldn’t be as enjoyable. But the girls, they just, they play so hard. They never give up. And that was a theme all season. We play some really good teams in this area, and I think we lost one game by four goals. That’s the biggest margin. That was the night we had two injuries that occurred. And other than that, it’s been a goal or two in most games we played all season. I’m very happy with the season. I think the girls did an extremely good job with what we have.”
That adversity took different forms, ranging from damage to the school and its facilities resulting from the EF-2 tornado that hit Perryville on March 14 to a number of injuries to key players. Hadler said his team weathered the storms, both literal and figurative.
“We’ve dealt with so much adversity this year,” Hadler said, “from the significant injuries to important players to the damage to the schools. We’ve dealt with adversity all year. The girls have really done well with it. They’ve been such a positive team, and I mean team in every sense of the word. They were a group that stuck together. Our seniors, Caroline Gremaud and Jewel Riney, did such a great job with keeping them positive and keeping them together. I can’t say enough about them. They have such an important part to the team, not just as players, but as captains as well.”
The Lady Pirates scored an average of 3.3 goals per game and gave up 1.7 on the way to its .500 record and even beat Saxony 6-1 earlier in the season. Things just didn’t go their way in district play.
“We played hard,” Hadler said. “The girls played well. In order to win the game, we needed to finish our opportunities, and we didn’t do that very well. All credit to Saxony, they played very hard, they pressed us the whole game, and made it difficult. I felt like it was one of them that could have gone either way. In the end, we have to capitalize on our opportunities, the way we play. We didn’t do that. That’s how soccer goes sometimes.”
Looking ahead, Hadler said he’s optimistic about next season. The Lady Pirates will lose just two seniors, but both made huge impacts this season.
“To me, the highlight [of the season] is Caroline and Jewel,” Hadler said. “They’re the ones that kept this team together and playing hard. I can’t say enough positive things about our two senior captains. They just they honestly and truly kept the team together and kept it so positive. And that’s why we were so competitive.”
Among those returning will be five juniors — Reese Behrle, Evelyn Mote-Fabian, Brynn Wibbenmeyer, Ava Ernst, and Alexa Hagan — along with seven sophomores. Ernst, the Lady Pirates’ leading scorer, finished the season with 29 goals and 12 assists. Emma Blechle, one of those seven sophomores, had 7 goals and 10 assists on the season. “
The future is bright,” Hdaler said, pointing to the number of experienced returners. “It is definitely bright.”
