O’Fallon soccer goes 1-2 in Metro Cup tourney
The O’Fallon Township High School (OTHS) girls soccer team slowly warmed to the task over the week-long Metro Cup Invitational tournament that kicked off their 2016 season.
The Lady Panthers ended tourney play with a 1-2 record, salvaging their last game after two successive shutout losses.
The OTHS squad opened the tournament with a 1-0 loss to the Waterloo Bulldogs.
As the final score indicates, offensive firepower was lacking for both teams.
Despite solid defensive work and an advantage in overall ball possession, the O’Fallon squad could not create many scoring chances.
“The effort was there, but we just couldn’t get much done offensively,” said OTHS coach Craig Dippel. “Our overall effort was much improved when we faced Belleville East in second round action.”
In their game against the Lancers, O’Fallon manufactured several scoring chances in the first ten minutes, but the Panthers’ shots were diverted by the Belleville East goal-keeper.
Those that did make it past the Lancer goalie banged off the cross bar, frustrating O’Fallon’s efforts to get on the board first.
Belleville East finally broke the scoreless deadlock and held on for a 1-0 victory.
The OTHS offense awakened in their final tourney tilt against Alton Marquette. Sam Stutsman scored on a header off KK Voelker’s corner kick to give the Lady Panthers their first lead of the season.
Sydney Brake was solid in goal for O’Fallon throughout the contest, but the OTHS girls needed another score to collect the win.
They got it from junior Gabby Goerke who rifled in a shot in the second half on a direct kick.
The OTHS defense took over from there, blanking Marquette the rest of the way to earn a
2-1 victory.
“I thought the tournament gave us an opportunity to get much needed game experience,” Dippel said. “We tried a number of combinations in order to see which unit was the most effective. It was a great springboard to the season, and hopefully we can continue to improve every time we take the field.”
The O’Fallon girls’ were scheduled to host Althoff on Wednesday.
This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 9:10 AM with the headline "O’Fallon soccer goes 1-2 in Metro Cup tourney."