Stewart Stars as Affton Girls Soccer Routs Bayless

The head coaches for Bayless and Affton each described their team as "young" prior to their teams’ nonconference girls soccer game on Monday night.

Affton coach Brian Mesplay lost eight senior starters from last year. The majority of the Bayless team is freshmen and sophomores. The main difference on Monday was Affton junior Haley Stewart, who scored two goals and added an assist to lead the Cougars to a solid 5-1 victory in front of the Bayless home crowd. The loss puts Bayless at 3-11 overall this season while Affton is 12-11.

Stewart's goals pushed her season total to 30, breaking her own school record of 28 goals in a season, which she set as a sophomore last year. She also has a team-leading 18 assists this season.

"She's a dynamic player," Mesplay said.  "We're always in games when we have somebody who can score."

He's looking forward to the time when his other girls step up and help Stewart. He said, at times, they lack that urgency and tend to stand and watch Stewart do everything.

Stewart scored close to the 15-minute mark into the first half for her first goal, following a blocked shot by Bayless junior goalie Kim Christophel. Cougars freshman Ali Harman found the net with a header, then Stewart hit the far corner of the net from close range to make it 3-0 at the half.

Three minutes into the second period, Stewart crossed the ball to freshman Jessica Reed, who scored to make it 4-0 for the Cougars.

The Bronchos received a break when sophomore sweeper Brittany Walker beat a couple of Cougars, took the ball wide and crossed in the middle. Bayless coach David Pozzo described the resulting play as a “fracas” in front of the goal.

“We just tackled it right into the goal," Pozzo said. Freshman Edvina Sekic scored the goal.

The Bronchos would have played the Cougars to a tie in the second half, finishing at 4-1, but a Bayless defender cleared the ball, and it bounced right off a Bayless' player's face and into the Bronchos goal, making it 5-1 with just minutes to play.

"We held our own in bits and pieces," Bayless coach Pozzo said, "but obviously they were the better team on the field. We're young, and we just got to get better."

Pozzo said they'll use the positive momentum of their goal to take them into districts against St. Elizabeth Academy (1-2, 4-10) next Tuesday. Bayless' last conference game is at Maplewood Richmond Heights (0-7, 1-18) on Wednesday.

Affton plays at Festus (2-4, 4-9) on Tuesday, and their first district game is against DuBourg (1-7, 4-12) next Tuesday.