SHS gears up for district

SIKESTON - The Sikeston Bulldogs soccer team will be riding a six-game winning streak heading into Class 2, District 1 at the Sikeston Complex starting this Saturday.

Sikeston (11-11-1) earned the No. 3 seed and will face the No. 6 seed Windsor Owls on Saturday at 2 p.m.

For the third season in a row, the Notre Dame Bulldogs received the No. 1 seed in districts and received a bye through the first round.

The Farmington Knights garnered the second seed and will face seventh seed Festus Tigers on Saturday at 4 p.m. The DeSoto Dragons are the fourth seed and will face fifth seed Fredericktown Blackcats on Saturday at noon.

Sikeston has won back-to-back district titles over heavily-favored Notre Dame. Once again, Notre Dame (24-1) is the heavy favorite to win the district and are the No. 4 ranked team in Class 2.

"Notre Dame is an amazing team," said Sikeston head coach Derrick Long. "They have beaten us three times this season and outscored us 11-1 in those three games. I am sure that we will be five goal underdogs if we play them. This will be our toughest test yet in district play."

Sikeston seems to be peaking at the right time with the winning streak and are not yet ready to end their season.

"We have definitely been streaking with our winning streak," said Long. "We have told the guys that the next time we lose, the season is over. The guys have taken that to heart and are ready to fight for the title."

Sikeston is led by two seniors Blake Taylor and Chris Carnell. Taylor is wrapping up a stellar career for Sikeston and is Sikeston's all-time goals scored leader. For the season, Taylor has scored 24 goals and has 20 assists.

Carnell is second on the team in goals with 10 and has nine assists on the year. Sophomore Timmy Hart has increased his productivity throughout the year and is second on the team with 11 assists and has scored nine goals, good for third on the team.

Junior Scott Droddy continues to put up impressive numbers in goal for Sikeston. For the year, Droddy has 342 saves and is the all-time saves leader in Sikeston history according to Long.

Sikeston has not faced Windsor this year, but did face the Owls last season in the first round of districts, a 3-0 Sikeston shutout. Besides the play with Notre Dame, Sikeston this season has lost to Farmington 2-1, beat DeSoto 1

-0 and defeated Fredericktown twice 1-0 and 8-1.

"We are going to take it one game at a time," said Long. "We can't focus on Notre Dame. Windsor is going to be a tough game playing that St. Louis style of soccer with a lot of movement and passing down the field. We are going to have to play them physical because I believe like most St. Louis area teams, they tend to shy away from contact."