SHS braves weather, finishes Fredericktown

SIKESTON -- The Sikeston Lady Bulldogs soccer team finished off Fredericktown Wednesday at the Sikeston Complex after a two-week postponement due to inclement weather.

In the first meeting Sikeston was leading 1-0 when the game was postponed with four minutes left in the first half.

On Wednesday, Sikeston jumped out to a 3-0 lead, withstood a Fredericktown rally, and held on for the 4-2 victory.

"I thought it was a good victory," said Sikeston coach Derrick Long. "We've had a pretty tough stretch -- that's our ninth game in the last nine days. We've got another tough one (tonight) against Jackson. We're just hoping to stay healthy and get well for district play coming up."

Sikeston's Abbi Keefer ended up with a hat trick, scoring one goal from the original meeting and knocking in two more goals when the game resumed Wednesday.

Sikeston's Ariel Reynolds tries to get the ball past a defender.

Sikeston's Ariel Reynolds tries to get the ball past a defender.

"I thought she played well tonight," Long said. "We've played a lot of tough teams lately and anybody that knows about us knows they have to stop us up top. She hasn't gotten a lot of open looks, but tonight she got some looks. She would've had a couple more goals but their keeper made a couple nice plays."

Keefer's second goal of the game gave the Lady Bulldogs a 2-0 lead on an assist from Jordi Ferrell, which is where the score stood at halftime.

Sikeston made it 3-0 when Keefer scored another goal on an assist from Katie DeLaRosa.

Keefer has 19 goals on the season, which leads the team. Fredericktown sliced the lead to 3-2 on two free kicks, something that irked Long somewhat.

"We just need to stop fouling -- we're fouling a little too much," said Long. "We gave them two free kicks in our back-third and you don't ever want to do that, especially in this kind of weather when you're footing's not good. Anything can happen with this kind of weather. The ball skipped on Amber (Minner) and the ball bounced over her head. Next time it rains in practice we'll probably work on our free-kick defense."

Ferrell gave the Lady Bulldogs a little cushion with a nice kick from the right side that curved around the Fredericktown goalie. DeLaRosa provided the assist.

"Jordi gave us a little insurance there at the end," said Long. "That was a really nice shot."

Ferrell has 18 goals on the season.

Sikeston is now 12-8-1 on the season which is the most wins the Lady Bulldog soccer team has ever had in its short six-year existence.

"We're playing more games and we're staying in games so our win total will go up each year until we reach a point," said Long. "It was a goal of the girls to eclipse our win mark, so we've reached that goal. Our other goal is to win a district championship so now we'll be focusing on that in the next couple weeks."

Sikeston travels to Jackson tonight at 5:30 p.m.