Lutheran South Outlasts Affton—On to District Soccer Championship

Fans of the and boys soccer programs should’ve known something was in the air Tuesday night at Bishop DuBourg Stadium in South St. Louis City. Most of them showed up for the Class 2 District 3 semifinal showdown between their Lancers and Cougars, just in time to see the early game between St. Mary’s and Windsor go to a thrilling finish.

That first game was tied at 3 after regulation and two overtimes, and wasn’t finally settled until Windsor won it on penalty kicks, nearly three hours after the contest had initially started.

But that matchup was just the appetizer. Lutheran South and Affton played to a scoreless draw through regulation and overtime on Tuesday, and had to go through eight rounds of penalty kicks before a successful make by LHSS’s Sam Freer ended everybody’s night. The Lancers took home a win over the Cougars.

“It was a great game,” Lutheran South head coach Jerry Amsler said. “There was lots of emotion involved, that’s for sure.”

The biggest burst of emotion came after a thrilling penalty kick round, which was tied 3-3 after five attempts by both teams, and the game moved into a sudden death round.

Affton made its chance in the sixth round, as did Lutheran South. But then both teams missed in the seventh round, when goalkeepers Jacob Dickman of South and Zach Koeller of Affton both made brilliant saves to keep the game tied.

In the eighth round though, Affton’s Haso Muhamedbegovic sailed his penalty kick chance wide, setting up Freer for the game-winning heroics.

“Both teams played hard,” Amsler said. “With the schools only about three to four miles apart, and we always seem to wind up in the same district. It's become a pretty good rivalry.”

The victory lifted South’s season record to 15-8-2, and earned the Lancers a trip to the district championship game Thursday, against Windsor (18-7). Windsor won the earlier game 4-3, after beating St. Mary’s 3-1 in penalty kicks.

The championship game will also be played at Bishop DuBourg Stadium, and is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

“It’ll be number one (Windsor) versus number two (Lutheran South),” Amsler said. “I guess we got it right in the seeding meeting. The two best teams will play for the championship.”

Affton finished its year with a 6-13-1 record.

“We have a good team,” Affton head coach John Peifer said. “We just had trouble scoring.”

Difficulty scoring goals proved to be the primary problem all season for the Cougars, who were shut out 10 times this season.

In fact, Affton’s last win was on October 20 against DuBourg (3-0), but in the four games previous that and three games after (including Tuesday’s contest against Lutheran South), the Cougars failed to score.

“That was our problem all year. We outplayed a lot of teams, but we just couldn’t score sometimes, and then we’d wind up losing in overtime or losing in penalty kicks. This game tonight was just like the whole season for us," Peifer said.

The winner of the Lutheran South-Windsor match Thursday will be the host team for the state sectionals next Tuesday, November 8, and will most likely face Trinity Catholic High, the No. 1 seed in Class 2 District 4.