Pirates’ one goal enough to get by Knights

Sometimes when you win a game, there comes a time when you felt like you could have played better.
That’s exactly how Perryville girls’ soccer coach Jerry Fulton felt after a 1-0 victory over Farmington at the Bank of Missouri Soccer Complex Monday. With the win Perryville moved to 2-0 on the season and outscored its two opponents 9-0 in the process.
“I just felt like we could have played better,” Fulton said. “I don’t know if it’s early in the season or if it’s the cold or what it was. I just felt like there was more that we could have done.”
The Pirates did everything possible to put the ball in the back of the net outshooting the Knights 15-2 in the game and had possession of the ball on their offensive half of the field about 98 percent of the time.
Kyla Schnurbusch had a run early that led to a pair of Perryville shots in the fourth minute and Ashlyn Rodewald had a shot saved in the 21st minute. Yet Perryville could not score.
“Possession-wise we outplayed them and everything else I thought we were better, but we couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net,” Fulton said. “When you have about 15 shots and score just one that’s not the best percentage, but that’s the way soccer goes sometimes.”

The Pirates remained tied 0-0 at halftime, but in the second half they would finally break through. Alyssa King took a shot from about 25 yards that got past the Farmington goalkeeper in the 56th minute after a goal kick was awarded to the Knights.
“When your center back has to come up and score that’s not how we draw it up, but that’s the way we will take it,” Fulton said. “It was a good shot, but I think we could have had four or five more if we would have been able to finish better.”
Farmington on the other hand, had trouble generating any offense throughout the game, Farmington had a single corner kick in the first half that was cleared away and other than that the Knights barley possessed the ball.
The Knights best chance at a goal came shortly after the Pirate goal in the 61st minute when a Farmington player got behind the defense for a breakaway, but the ensuing shot was not on target.
Perryville played Fox on Wednesday and plays Fredericktown on Thursday in a busy week.
“Even though we won, I believe we can still play better and we will continue to work on things this week to make sure we are ready,” Fulton said.