Despite a record of 0 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie, the West Plains Zizzers came away from the Camdenton Laker Shootout with their heads held high. The Zizzers opened tournament play on Friday against the Springfield Catholic Fighting Irish. Catholic had defeated the Zizzers 5-0 earlier in the season. In the meeting, the Zizzers played more organized on defense. Instead of chasing the ball, they worked and moved better as a unit. Catholic had the better of the ball possession and kept the Zizzers from getting any good scoring opportunities, but West Plains played a much better game than they did in the first meeting. Catholic opened the scoring in the 4th minute. Luke Straus sent a corner kick left side of the goal where Taylor Arens headed the ball over the Anthony Holt for a 1-0 Irish lead. That would be the only goal of the half.
In the second half, the Zizzers continued playing a strong defensive game, but a failed clearance in the back lead to a Catholic goal in the 44th minute. Cullen Barr was able to pick up the ball and score an unassisted goal to make it 2-0 Irish. about 15 minutes later, Niko Temofeew sent a ball in front of the goal to Cullen Barr, who was able to place the ball past Holt for Catholic’s third goal of the game. Despite being outshot by a large margin, the game was a big improvement for West Plains.
On Saturday morning, the Zizzers lost a tough one to Sullivan 1-0. In a game where both teams generated some scoring chances, it would be Sullivan that would come up with the lone goal. After battling back and forth through a scoreless first half, the Eagles got the game-winner in the 65th minute. Sullivan sent a long high ball into the 18 yard box where Anthony Holt had the ball hit off his hands and get behind him. #11 was following the ball in and slid it into the goal. The Zizzers pushed hard, but couldn’t get an equaliser.
Saturday evening, despite the Homecoming Dance awaiting back home, playing without one of their captains, and having several players banged up, the Zizzers maintained their focus and came out strong against Fulton. Fulton had defeated the Zizzers 2-0 at the Parkview Tournament earlier this sesaon. In an exciting hard fought game that saw both teams create scoring chances, it would be the Zizzers who got on the board first. In the 20th minute, Brodie Bender sent a ball into the middle of the box where Nathan Moore headed it past the onrushing keeper for a 1-0 Zizzer lead. The Hornets drew level with about 5 seconds remaining in the first half as John Kirby split the Zizzer defense who got caught flat. Kirby outraced the defenders a pushed a shot past Anthony Holt to tie things up at 1-1. Through a hard fought second half and two 10 minute overtime periods, both teams left it all on the field, but neither could get a game-winning goal. Because a winner wasn’t need for advancement, there was no Penalty Kick shootout after the scoreless overtime periods. The game for the Zizzers was a marked improvement over the first meeting between the two teams.
The boys put together 3 good, complete games. They fought hard from start to finish and didn’t let anything distract them from playing hard. Now we look to maintain that focus and improve our performance and get everybody healthy. OVerall it was a good weekend for all of the boys. Everyone made a positive contribution this weekend. Good work boys!
Next up are games Tuesday at Parkview. Varsity plays first at 4:00pm, JV to follow afterward.
