The Perryville Pirate soccer team will have a chance to find out exactly what its made of this weekend.
The Pirates will travel to Hannibal on Friday and Saturday to take part in a three game tournament, against teams that they haven’t faced much in the past.
“That’s what I like most about this tournament,” Perryville soccer coach Jerry Fulton said. “These are teams we don’t normally play and it also allows the team the ability to travel and create a bonding expereince, which is something that will hopefully help us down the road.”
The Pirates will take on Hannibal Friday afternoon, then face Villa Duchesne and Quincy Notre Dame on Saturday. Qunicy Notre Dame won a state championship in Illinois last season.
“I feel like if we go up there and play our ‘A’ game then we can play with nearly everybody,” Fulton said. “I fully expect to try and win this tournament.”
The Pirates will enter the event with a 4-1 record, but haven’t played a game since April 3 when they blanked Cape Central 4-0 thanks to some rain outs and postponements.
The Pirates have outscored its opponents 21-7 this season with the lone blemish coming in a 7-2 loss to Fox, who has only lost a single game to this point of the season.
“I don’t think we have seen our eam hit its full potential yet,” Fulton said. “I think we have played to our opponents a couple of times and I don’t believe that the Fox game was really a 7-2 decision, even though that’s what the score showed. I hope to see that potential this weekend.”
Fulton would deem the tournament as successful as long as his team plays well.
“I want to play well,” he said. “I’ve always told the team that whether we win or lose, as long as we play well, I’ll be happy. If we play well and lose that’s one thing, but if we play poorly and we lose then I’ll never be happy. If we play well, I’ll be satisfied and hopefully that turns into a few wins.”
