Hazelwood West Makes Its Sixth Consecutive Win Against Trinity Catholic

SPANISH LAKE – The boys varsity soccer team pushed its five-game winning streak to six Monday night at Trinity Catholic High School, when the Wildcats dominated the Titans in nearly every way possible, to claim a 4-1 win.

Several players stood out for the Wildcats against Trinity, but none shined brighter than , who had two goals and an assist to lead West to a victory over the Titans, who were slotted the No. 6 team in the area in last week’s top 10 rankings poll.

“It was a little ugly, but we’ll take any win we can get at anytime that’s for sure,” said West head coach Jason Sellers. “To rack up a ‘W’ against an obviously quality team like Trinity, that got off to a great start, I don’t think any team’s clicking on all cylinders, but we’ll take it.”

And take it is exactly what the West did.

They went right after the Titans with an aggressive attack that kept putting pressure on the Trinity defense, until it finally made a mistake on which the Wildcats could capitalize.

But before that happened, Cameron delivered a sensational throw-in pass that teammate Danny Potts was able to head past stunned Trinity goalkeeper Jeremiah Cooper and into the net, to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.

That play seemed to fire up the Titans, who tied the game about two minutes later. Senior Tom Koerper capped off a fierce Trinity charge, by banging in a rebound for his second goal of the season, to make the score 1-1.

“It wasn’t real pretty at times,” Sellers said. “There were some real fluky goals tonight. But anytime you can get a win, especially against a quality opponent like Trinity, it’s a good night.”

West took the lead for good on one of those “fluky goals" just before the half when goalkeeper Nick Ehlers punted a goalkick from his own box that sailed over everyone and bounced right to Cameron. Cameron then outleaped a Trinity defender, and headed the ball into the net for his first goal of the night.

“I just read the bounce and there was only one defender back,” Cameron said, “and I had already challenged him on a headball once, so I knew I could jump over him. So I read the bounce and headed it, and it went right in the corner.”

Needless to say, the Trinity coach Vince Drake was stunned that such a play could happen.

“That just can’t happen,” Drake said. “First, we let the ball bounce. And then our sweeper and our keeper failed to communicate.”

But that was only Cameron’s first brilliant goal of the night.

He nearly topped himself late in the second half, when he took a pass from teammate John Hoemeyer, faked out two Trinity defenders, then blasted a shot off a third defender that deflected into the net for a 3-1 Wildcat advantage.

The two scores on Monday give Cameron eight goals on the season, which not only leads the Wildcats, but is the most for any player in the entire Suburban North Conference.

West capped off the night when Hoemeyer scored his second goal of the season with just over four minutes left to make sure there would be no Trinity comeback.

“We didn’t play that great,” Sellers said. “But I think anybody would be happy with 4-1 wins every time. So we’ll take it.”

The Wildcats, who are 6-1 on the season, and very likely to find themselves ranked among the top 10 teams in the area when the new poll comes out on Wednesday, will play two more games this week.

On Thursday, West will travel to St. Peters to play Fort Zumwalt East at 5 p.m., and then on Friday, the Wildcats will be in St. Charles to take on St. Charles West at 6 p.m.

Next week, West will be hosting its own tournament, the Wildcat Classic, which will feature games all-week long at Wildcat Stadium and at the West High Soccer Field.

SCORING SUMMARY

Score by Halves

F

Hazelwood West

2

2

4

Trinity Catholic

1

0

1

First Half

HW: Danny Potts (1), assisted by Jeff Cameron. 30:00

TC: Tom Koerper (2), unassisted. 28:01

HW: Jeff Cameron (7), assisted by Nick Ehlers. 2:54

Second Half

HW: Jeff Cameron (8), assisted by John Hoemeyer. 8:21

HW: John Hoemeyer (2), assisted by Brendan Temm. 4:33