Pair Of Late Goals Vaults Bayless To Conference-Clinching Win Over Valley Park

FENTON—On Oct. 24, 2006, the Bayless High boys soccer team suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to league rival Valley Park High School, and with it, lost its chance to win the South Central Athletic Association (SCAA) championship that year.

It was quite an emotional letdown for the Bronchos that day. The team had put a season’s worth of work into winning the SCAA title, only to have it slip away against its most bitter conference rival.

It seems poignant to recap that story, because since then, Bayless has made sure to leave no doubt that it is the top of the class in SCAA boys soccer, having won every league championship since '06 and without losing a conference game to anyone since that fateful day.

And that total became five straight SCAA championships for the Bronchos, thanks to a scintillating 3-1 win over the Hawks at the Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park on Monday afternoon.

“After coming off Cape Girardeau Notre Dame over the weekend, I think their energy was a little low,” Bayless coach Dave Pozzo said. “It was their Senior Night, so they were really pumped.

“That was probably our best game of the year right there. So the boys came out a little flat today.”

In that game last Saturday at Cape Notre Dame, Bayless fell behind 1-0, then stormed back to a 3-1 lead, before finally holding off the home team for a 3-2 win, which made Monday’s matchup against Valley Park, a quick turnaround for a team that has played four games in five days.

“We looked a little tired at times, I thought,” Pozzo said. “But after (Valley Park) tied it up, we were able to get going again.”

Bayless grabbed the lead midway through the first half, when senior Enis Brdarevic outran a Valley Park defender to a loose ball in front of the Hawks’ net, then flipped a nifty little volley over goalkeeper Nate Venturella’s head, for his fourth goal of the season.

And it seemed like that one-goal edge might stand, but midway through the second half, Valley Park’s Josiah Rempel slipped past two Bayless defenders and broke in all alone on goalkeeper Almir Mesanovic.

The Bayless junior somehow knocked the ball away from Rempel, but sent it right to Valley Park’s Brian Dang, who blasted it into the empty net, for his 15th goal of the season, to tie the score at 1.  

“Valley Park played well,” Pozzo said. “Valley Park played well. They packed it in, and they have the one guy with speed (Dang) up top that gave us trouble.”

That Valley Park score seemed to wake up the Bayless squad, which seemed to sleepwalk through most of the second half.

But once the game was tied, the Bronchos went right back to work.

First, junior Deni Misic, who had two goals in the Cape Notre Dame win, tapped in a rebound off teammate Admir Mesanovic's shot that beat Valley Park’s Venturella, but hit the right goalpost, for his fifth goal of the year to give the Bronchos the lead.

Then Bayless and SCAA-leading scorer Fazlo Alihodzic netted his 19th goal of the year off a pass from teammate Adis Sahbaz to make it 3-1 Bronchos with just more than 10 minutes left in the game.

“(Bayless) is a really good team,” Valley Park coach B.J. Lancaster said. “And for our team to even be in the game with 20 minutes to go is a big step for us. We put a lot of pressure on them I think.”

The Bronchos are now 18-4-1 this season, and will go for their fifth straight undefeated conference season at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, when they’ll take on second-place Crossroads Prep at the Midwest Soccer Academy Complex on Fyler Road in St. Louis.

Bayless will then finish off the 2011 regular season with a nonconference game against DeSoto High School on Thursday before opening up district play Tuesday with a game at Maplewood High School against Carnahan High School of St. Louis.

Bayless is the No. 1 seed in its district and would likely play Maplewood in the district championship game on at 6:15 p.m. Nov. 3 at Maplewood.

Scoring Summary

Score by Halves

F

Bayless

1

2

3

Valley Park

0

1

1

First Half

Bay: Enis Brdarevic (4), assisted by Ramo Mesanovic

Second Half

VP: Brian Dang (15), assisted by Josiah Rempel

Bay: Deni Misic (5), assisted by Admir Mesanovic

Bay: Fazlo Alihodzic (19), assisted by Adis Sahbaz