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Sikeston soccer blanks DeSoto
SIKESTON - The Sikeston Bulldogs shutout the DeSoto Dragons at the Sikeston Complex on Wednesday night, 1-0.
Sikeston keeper Scott Droddy recorded his first shutout of the season and senior Blake Taylor scored the only goal of the game to lift the Bulldogs.
"We looked a lot better tonight than we did last night (a 3-0 loss to Poplar Bluff)," said Sikeston head coach Derrick Long. "We were more aggressive and played with more intensity. I think the biggest difference is that the kids just hustled more against DeSoto."
Droddy has been solid in goal all season for the Bulldogs and shutout the Dragons as he faced 16 shots in the contest. Droddy faced his toughest test early in the first half as DeSoto (5-3) had a direct kick 15 yards from goal.
The ball was laced towards the goal, but Droddy dove to his right and knocked away a sure goal for the Dragons.
"Scott is always solid in goal for us," said Long. "I can't say enough about his play this season. If a team does score on us it is usually not Scott's fault, but a break down on defense. He is just a hard worker and has excellent practice habits."
Sikeston scored at 22:00 of the first half on a goal by Taylor. Timmy Hart recorded the assist as he found a streaking Taylor behind the DeSoto defense and hit Taylor in perfect stride.
Taylor found himself with an open 10-foot shot and deked the goalie to the right and shot the ball cleanly to the left and in goal. Sikeston led 1-0 and the score stood up until the final buzzer.
"We moved our lineup around tonight," said Long. "We had Blake play in the center-mid and had an extra sweeper to hopefully get more runs on goal. It is good to get Blake going because he was a little bit frustrated against Poplar Bluff. It was also a great ball by Timmy."
Long had praise for his defense which has been maligned this season.
"We swarmed tonight on defense and we have not been doing that in recent games. "DeSoto plays a possession style offense and our kids just got use to staying back on defense. Our defense played an excellent match and it is good to see the kids get rewarded with a good victory over a solid team."
DeSoto won the junior varsity contest 4-0.
Sikeston (3-7-1) hits the road on Monday as the Bulldogs will travel to Farmington to take on the Knights at 5 p.m.
PERRYVILLE -- The Kelly Lady Hawks crushed the Perryville Lady Pirates on the road Wednesday afternoon, 22-0.
After suffering a heart-breaking loss to Poplar Bluff on Tuesday, Kelly bounced back in a big way against Perryville. The Lady Hawks pounded out 27 hits in the contest and two Kelly pitches combined to one-hit the Lady Pirates.
"It's a nice bounce-back game," said Kelly head coach Rhonda Ratledge. "The girls are capable of putting it in play like that. We're coming close to district play so we need to put together games like this."
Londyn Backfisch and Sarah Ruff had career games against Perryville. Both were 5-for-5, while the freshman Backfisch had two triples and three RBIs and Ruff had a double with four RBIs.
Summer Proctor continued her solid play for the Lady Hawks on Wednesday with three hits and led the team with five RBIs. Kalie Hughes, Casey Kern and Ashley Vetter all had three hits apiece for Kelly. Vetter had three runs driven in, Hughes had two RBIs and Kern drove in a single tally.
Rounding out the offensive onslaught for Kelly was Brittany Ponder (2-5, 3B), Katee Moore (2-4, RBI) and Ashley Flahardy (1-3).
Kern picked up the win for Kelly going three innings and allowed only one hit. Hughes pitched two inning striking out three and allowed one walk.
Kelly (19-4) travels back to Perryville on Friday to face St. Vincent at 3:30 p.m.