Hazelwood West Soccer Wins Its Fourth Straight With 3-0 Shutout

WOODSON TERRACE – There’s no doubt about it, the boys varsity soccer team is on quite a roll.

Ever since a season-opening debacle loss against Southern Boone, the Wildcats have been just fanstastic out on the pitch.

And they extended that brilliant play with a convincing 3-0 win over rival Ritenour, in the Suburban North Conference opener for both teams, Wednesday afternoon at the Ritenour Soccer Center on St. Charles Rock Road.

“It’s early, but obviously we’ll take it,” West head coach Jason Sellers said. “We’re just trying to get better and better as the year progresses, and we played a good quality opponent today.

"It was good to see (the team) get out and compete against a team like that.”

The phrase “out-compete” might better describe what happened on Wednesday though, as the Wildcats did exactly that to the Huskies right from the opening kickoff and consistently throughout the entire game.

“We talked about that at the beginning of the game, and set that as one of our goals,”  Sellers said. “(We wanted) to come out hard early. It’s a good thing when you score first. That always makes a big difference.”  

West senior Luke Promaroli was the one who got the Wildcats going, when he banged in his own rebound, in the game’s 33rd minute to give his club the edge.

Moments later, teammate Ramon Perez doubled the Wildcat lead to 2-0, on a spectacular header off a corner kick by senior Jeff Cameron.

With that edge at halftime, West was able to controlled, efficient soccer in the second half, before finally closing out the home-standing Huskies with a goal by junior Kris Ross.

“(Scoring early) always kind of let’s you dictate the rest of the play,” Sellers said. “And it took us a while to get that first goal, but once we did, it kind of calmed us down.”

The initial score was Promaroli’s second of the season, while Perez picked up his first, and Ross nabbed his second goal of the year as well.

“In years past when we’ve played (Ritenour), it’s always been a close game,” Sellers said. “And I think we wanted to distance ourselves from that as much as possible so we could play without that hanging over our shoulders.”

Senior Nick Ehlers was the winning goalkeeper in the match, picking up his fourth win of the season and fourth straight shutout.

Teams

Score by Half

F

Hazelwood West (4-1)

2

1

3

Ritenour (3-3)

0

0

0

First Half

Haz. West: Luke Promaroli (2) assisted by John Hoemeyer, 33’

Haz. West: Ramon Perez (1) assisted by Jeff Cameron, 37’

Second Half

Haz. West: Kris Ross (2) assisted by Ramon Perez, 24’