SHS ready for districts

FARMINGTON -- The Sikeston Bulldogs soccer team opens up district play on Saturday night in Farmington, where they will take on the No. 5 seed Fredericktown at 8 p.m. Sikeston is seeded No. 4.

The Bulldogs will look to improve on their seven wins by advancing to the second round of districts by going through the Black Cats.

Both teams are coming off of losses in their last regular season games, as the Bulldogs fell to Poplar Bluff on Monday, 1-0, and Fredericktown fell to Farmington, 3-1 on Wednesday night.

"Fredericktown is pretty good," Sikeston head coach Derrick Long said. "They're scrappy and quick. They beat us once earlier in the season."

Sikeston fell to Fredericktown back on Oct. 2, by a score of 2-0. A later meeting in the season ended in a 0-0 tie, and was called due to darkness.

"We've yet to score on them (Fredericktown) this season," Long said. "We've gotten good shots in both games, just not any for scores. We've definitely worked on how to change that this week in practice."

The Bulldogs will look for the strong defensive play out of goalie Scott Droddy and captain Dakota Trevino to step up and put a halt to the quick offense of Fredericktown early in the game.

Sikeston and Fredericktown are set to get underway at 8 p.m. There are three games set to play before the bout. No. 1 seed Notre Dame is set to take on No. 8 North County, No. 3 Windsor will play No. 6 Farmington and No. 2 DeSoto will battle No. 7 Festus.

The district schedule has the winner of the Sikeston--Fredericktown game playing the winner of the Notre Dame--North County game on Monday night in Farmington at 5:30 p.m.