Pirates conclude regular season with victory

Ever since the Perryville girls soccer team fell to their cross-town rival St. Vincent, they have been on a tear.
The Pirates fell to the Indians 2-1 on May 1 and Perryville head coach Jerry Fulton said it “woke the girls up”
“I challenged the girls to treat the last four games of the regular season like a district tournament and they have responded very well,” Fulton said.
That streak continued on Tuesday. The Pirates controlled much of the action from start to finish as they sprinted past Saxony Lutheran 4-0 at the Larry Cleair Track and Soccer Complex.
The victory was the Pirates’ fourth consecutive victory as they concluded the regular season, outscoring opponents 20-1 in those contests.
Perryville faced Saxony in their first game of the season (a 9-1 Pirate victory) and saw a much improved Crusader squad from then until now.
“They are much better,” Fulton said. “I feel that we are, too. We were a little unlucky today with our shots because I felt like we had a ton of chances today. I felt like we played two complete halves. If you’re going to peak, now is the right time to do that.”
Perryville outshot Saxony 15-3 and had four different players contribute in the scoring effort.
Leah Buerck continued her hot streak with one goal and an assist, which brings her to 42 goals on the year. Ashlyn Rodewald, Carlie Holdman, and Cloey Richardet also scored. Alyssa King had two assists, while Haley Fulmer accounted for one helper.
Fulton believes that the well rounded scoring was one of the best things to come out of the game.
“Leah has a lot of goals, but no one person should be the focal point of the offense,” Fulton said. “If we want to go far then we will need help from everyone when it comes to scoring.”
The scoring took a while for Perryville, but once it started, the Pirates rolled.

Buerck dribbled around a few Saxony Lutheran defenders and missed a shot on the near post in the 15th minute.
However she would not be denied a few minutes later.
King found Buerck in the box for the easy touch in the 20th minute to give Perryville a 1-0 lead.
The Pirates demonstrated more teamwork in the 30th minute when Delainey Kaempfe won a ball off her own throw-in, pushed a pass to Fulmer, who gave it to Rodewald for the goal and a 2-0 lead.
Perryville added one more in the first half, when Buerck’s shot was saved by Saxony goalkeeper Lauren Barnes and Holdman was there for the rebound and tap-in. The best goal chance for the Crusaders came right out of halftime when a free kick was pushed over the crossbar by Perryville goalkeeper Adrienne Weibrecht in the 48th minute.
Perryville put their final stamp on the game in the 60th minute when King found Richardet, who snuck a shot under the arm of the goalkeeper.
“I think we are building at the right time and I think we might be seeing our best soccer right now.” Fulton said
That bodes well for the Pirates as they are the No. 1 seed in the Class 2, District 1 tournament that will start for them Tuesday, May 18.
The Pirates will play the winner of Sullivan/St. Clair at 4 p.m. at the Bank of Missouri Soccer Complex in Perryville.
The district features seven team with North County and Fredericktown the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds respectively.
The district tournament championship game will be played on May 19 at 5 p.m. The Pirates girls soccer team has not won a district title since 2006.
“I think we have as good a chance as anyone to win the tournament as long as we play the way we have been for the past two weeks.” Fulton said.