Eureka Defense Too Much for Mehville Soccer

Mehlville coach Tom Harper said the schedulers didn’t do his Panthers any favors this week. On Thursday afternoon, the Mehville soccer girls played at Eureka (4-0), sandwiched between Lindbergh and Lafayette, all in the same week.

The Wildcats' experienced defense all but shut down Mehville (4-2 before the match). Only a determined second-half effort by the Panthers managed to avoid a shutout, losing to Eureka 5-1.

“Our defense is very good,” Eureka coach Bill Goggin said. “We have a lot of experienced players back there. I have to do that, because I have a lot of young players I’m trying to figure out spots as we go here, so the defense should be good.”

Eureka was up 3-0 at the half, the shut-out up to that point thanks to a diving save by goalie Ali Wallner, which was even more amazing considering Wallner just recently returned to action after breaking her pelvis in five places last July in a four-wheeler accident.

“As soon as high school started, that was the first time the doctor released me to play, and so I started playing, and slowly got back together, and started diving and slowly got into it.”

Mehville’s score in the second came from sophomore Kaela Luna.

“Hunter Westbrook, our midfielder came through, and I could see the look in her eye…that she was going to go to goal and score,” Harper said. But the ball got away from Westbrook and it ended up with Luna. “Kaela, from last year and this year, she finds the goal.

“She finds the net, and finds nets in ways that sometimes I don’t understand, but that’s why you keep playing 80 minutes so those good things happen to you,” Harper said. Mehlville native Luna said she doesn’t work too hard at finding the ball, it usually finds her, she said.

“They could have packed it up, a little demoralized, but they kept digging and scratching and they created a couple of quality scoring opportunities for themselves,” Harper said.

Eureka scored in the second half on senior Jenn Huber's shot from inside the box, and a corner kick that found junior Haley Albert’s head, to senior Torie Goode, who found open net.

“It’s a marathon and not a sprint in the season,” Harper said. “So we’re looking to learn lessons from these types of games and hope that that pays dividends when we get to the post season.”