The Zizzers traveled to St. Louis on Friday night to take on the Parkway Central Colts. The Colts entered the game with a 13-6-3 record (Including wins over #8 St. Marys 1-0, Bubble Team Marguette 3-1, Small Schools Bubble Team Ladue 1-0, and played #7 Vianney to a 1-1 Tie). The Colts are one of the teams On The Bubble in the St.Louis Post-Dispatch Large School Rankings. Last season, the Zizzers lost 2-1 to Parkway Central.
The match proved to be a beautiful one (This was the funnest game all year to watch as both teams played very good soccer). Both teams came out strong from the first whistle, moving the ball around the field and creating scoring chances. According to West Plains stats (good job Mike Moore!), the shots were even at 19 each. The defensive effort was great, from the forwards all the way back. It was a great team effort.
The Colts scored what they thought was the go-ahead goal in the second half, but it was disallowed. The Colts player pushed a Zizzer defender out of the way to get to the ball in a crowd in front of the goal. At the end of Regulation Time, the score remained 0-0. It remained that way after the first 10-minute Overtime period. In the second Overtime period, each team took 2 shots before Stuart Ziegler ended the game in the 95th minute of play. Ziegler took a pass in the middle of the field and raced in on goal, just poking a shot past the keeeper for a 1-0 Zizzer win. The goal for Ziegler was his 24th of the season, tieing the Zizzer Single Season Record set by Nick Dryden in 2004. Landon Perry picked up the shuout and Win in the goal. The Zizzer record improves to 14-7-0 on the season.
In JV action, Parkway Central defeated the Zizzers 6-0. Playing well at times, the Zizzers managed to create a few good scoring chances, but were unable to capitalize on them. The boys never gave up despite the score.
