It wasn’t exactly how Perryville wanted the tournament to end, but it was a good performance nonetheless.
Perryville claimed second place in the Greg Kline Invitational in Carbondale, Ill. on Aug. 27.
It was not without some controversy and some unforeseen circumstances.
The Pirates beat Murphysboro, Ill, 3-2 on Friday after falling behind 2-0 in the first half.
The game started more than one hour late, ran out of daylight midway through the contest, and had to move to a different field to finish up.
Pirates fell behind 2-0 on a shot that Perryville soccer coach Jerry Fulton called a “laser,” and a penalty kick. The Pirates scored 51 seconds into the second half and Perryville put another goal in to tie the game, before the darkness set in, about 15 minutes remaining in the second half.
Carson Adams scored the game winning goal with less than one minute left in the game to secure the victory. Carter Blechle led Perryville with one goal, and two assists in the victory, while Adams and Treyton Barnett netted one goal apiece.
“We definitely pulled that one out,” Fulton said. “I didn’t get home until 11:30 p.m. that night and we started at 5:30 p.m. It was a long day.”
Perryville did everything, except put the ball in the back of the net against Sikeston on Saturday morning.
“We peppered the post and the crossbar, just about everything,” Fulton said. “We played on their end of the field about 85 percent of the time.”
Perryville could not score in regulation, but found a way to win in penalty kicks to go to the championship game. Perryville made all but one attempt during the shootout.
“My freshman goalie (Waylon Huber) made some good stops during the shootout and really had a good performance there which was nice to see.”
In the championship game against Cape Central, Adam Green gave Perryville a 1-0 lead on a goal with 15 minutes left in regulation. The Tigers scored three goals in the final minutes to secure the championship.
Fulton was pleased with the finish in several respects.
“What I saw was that we were able to able some controversy,” Fulton said. “With all the things happening Friday night and coming right back Saturday. I thought we handled everything like that well. I felt like we had the better of the play against Cape Central, but a few bad things happened and then we were playing catch-up.”
Fulton is hoping that his team is able to find the back of the net more and produce more goals. Perryville scored four goals in three games in the tournament.
“We created all the opportunities that we needed to create, we just didn’t finish. I think if we are able to score that takes pressure off the defense. Right now we are trying to figure out how to put some more balls in the back of the net.”
Some of that will be adjusting to losing its top three scorers from 2021, including two 40-goal scorers.
“Last year we had better goal scorers with Bryce Brewer and Dayton Strattman,” Fulton said. “Our midfield is the same as it was last year. We just have to figure out how to finish at the net.”
