Senior Putting in Clutch Goals for Lady Lions

To excel in the world of varsity sports it never hurts to be able to perform in the clutch.

And senior soccer forward Hailey Rodgers did just that last week. Rodgers scored the game winning goal in a c on Tuesday. Her goal with 27:30 left to play in the contest broke a 1-1 tie.  

“It feels good to put the ball in,” Rodgers said just minutes after the Gateway Athletic North Conference win.

Rodgers is one of the Lady Lions' top goal scorers with six goals—Riley Kerr and Jessica Seiler also have six goals.     

“We play really well together, we gel,” Rodgers said on her team’s scoring.

Tuesday’s goal marked Rodgers’ first game-winning goal of the season.  The Lady Lions fell behind a goal when Fort Zumwalt North’s Paige Jones scored just five minutes into the contest. Soon after the goal the Lady Lions started to take control of the flow of play and challenged North. Courtney Staten’s goal with 18:18 left to play in the first half tied the contest up.

“We just wanted to keep playing hard so we could get the win,” Rodgers said on falling behind by a goal.

Rodgers’ freshman year – the 2007-08 school year – was also the first year for Fort Zumwalt East High School. The school didn’t have a varsity soccer team that year so she played junior varsity and was moved up to the varsity level as a sophomore.

“It was good competition,” she said on her sophomore year. “We were trying to feel things out, but we did very well.”

The Lady Lions won the GAC North last year. East improved to 9-7 overall and 2-1 in the league with the win over North. St. Charles West is currently in the lead to win the conference with a perfect 5-0 record in the league. Playing in a new program has been a good experience for Rodgers.   

“This is a really good program,” she said. “[Lady Lion Coach Seth] Wilber is a really good coach. It’s been good for a lot of the girls.”

Rodgers will continue her soccer career next year at North Park University, a Division III school in Chicago. The senior said familiarity played a role in her choice of a school.

“I like the way they play,” she said. “It reminds me a lot of the way Wilber likes to play. They play a very aggressive style of soccer.”

The senior didn’t chose to continue her career to be just another college soccer player.

“I want to be aggressive and have a lot of wins,” she said.