Imperfect practice doesn't deter Glover
Senior wins shootout for Zumwalt West
"I missed all of mine in practice, it was kind of a joke on the team here," Glover said. "I was like 0-for-5 in practice, but I wanted to take one, so they let me."
When penalty kicks went to sudden death during Saturday's final of the St. Dominic Super Cup, Glover was the first Jaguar to get the call. He delivered, and Zumwalt West won 1-0.The Jaguars remained unbeaten (4-0) and have out-scored opponents 14-0 this season. St. Dominic (4-1) had allowed just two goals in its first four games.
"I think we're both very good teams defensively," said Zumwalt West coach Sean Baldwin. "It's hard to get a lot of chances on a team like St. Dominic where all their midfielders they defend well, everybody in the back defends well. I think they have one of the best goalies in the area, so it's going to be hard to score. And I like to think that we're a similar type of team where teams are going to have a hard-time scoring on us. It was a hard-fought game. I thought honestly they probably had the better of the play the second half, took it to us a little bit, but we did what we had to, to kind of hang in there."
After both teams failed to score through regulation and a pair of 10-minute overtime periods, the net proved much easier to find in the shootout. Each of the first four Jaguars that attempted - Dylan Carter, Alex Luetkemeyer, Josh Funke and Dan Frohock - was successful.
Taylor Barthels didn't play in regulation or overtime, but he stepped in at goalie in PKs for Zumwalt West, because Ricky Morris, the starter, had leg soreness stemming from a collision during the first overtime. Barthels saved the shot of Troy Gittemeier, St. Dominic's second shooter, but Ryan Seifert, Matthew Steiniger, Adam Latham and Logan Ream all found the net.
It came down to a showdown between Zumwalt West's Tom Vincenc and St. Dominic goalie Sam Cooksey. Cooksey made a save to the short side, and the PKs were square at 4-4.
In the first round of sudden death, St. Dominic's Kevin Hufford drilled the crossbar, and the ball came down behind Barthels. Hufford argued that the ball crossed the line, but to no avail.
"He (Hufford) thought it did and Sam our goalie kind of thought it did, but you know, that's one of those things," said Crusaders coach Greg Koeller. "It was well fought, you wish you could win it out in the run of play instead of spot kicks, but that's just how the rules end up. It was a well-played game on both parts. I'm very pleased with our effort."
Glover drilled his winning shot into the lower-right corner.
"He's played in a lot of pressure games, so I thought if anybody was going to be able to do it, he'd be able to do it," Baldwin said. "We picked him regardless of how he did in practice."
Each team caught a piece of the goal in the second half. St. Dominic kept up pressure after a long serve into the penalty area, and Seifert drilled the left post with a shot with just less than 30 minutes left in regulation. Less than three minutes later, the Jaguars' Jacob Rocco received the ball near the top of the penalty area and lofted a shot over Cooksey that drilled the crossbar.
Zumwalt West's Dylan Carter nearly connected on a bicycle kick in traffic near the Crusaders' goal at the 25-minute mark. On a dead ball with just four seconds left in regulation, the Jaguars' Patrick Morris connected with a head ball at the right post, but Cooksey was there to stomach the shot for the save.
The Crusaders' opportunities included a head ball by Hufford that Ricky Morris saved in the first half, and a long ball played in by Ream that Seifert couldn't quite catch up with as he slid at the goalkeeper's feet in the second half. Steiniger got off a tough-angle shot that Ricky Morris saved early in the first overtime and the Crusaders had a free kick from just outside the right corner of the penalty area late in the second extra session.
"Defensively I think Logan (Ream) had an outstanding tournament and our backfield played extremely well," Koeller said. "Brett Stiffler and Andrew Lock, Michael Scott, Eric Stoyanov held the fort down pretty well, and they (the Jaguars) have a very good defense. Frohock's one of their top players so they obviously have a very strong backfield too. And so, it was a battle in the midfield as well, you've got some very talented players there, so overall, it was well-played throughout, every phase. We would surge, they would surge a little bit. So overall at this stage of the season, I think we're playing really well and you can't be too disappointed with the result. Results we don't focus in on too much, because we want to see a good performance and I think we got a good performance."
If the result stung some of the Crusaders, they would have their chance at retribution quickly. Zumwalt West and St. Dominic met again in a regular season game Monday on the Jaguars' home turf.
"It was nice since this was the tournament to get the victory, but yeah they're definitely going to be looking for revenge on Monday," Glover said.
Baldwin had more on his mind than just soccer on Saturday, because he became a new father at about 10:30 p.m. Friday night, when his second daughter, Brooklynn was born. He said he wasn't expecting to attend Saturday's game, but his wife Stephanie, a former soccer player herself, insisted. Afterword, Sean was headed back to the hospital.
"Last night the baby was healthy, everything went well, so (Stephanie) said 'You need to be at the game.' So I didn't argue with her," Baldwin said.
"She called me a couple times during the game to see what the score was."
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