Sikeston sets sights on second-straight district title game appearance

sports@standard-democrat.com

SIKESTON -- Even as they come in as one of the lower seeds, the Sikeston Lady Bulldogs have plenty of reasons to remain confident entering its first year in the Class 3, District 1 tournament.

Looking for their second-straight trip to a district championship game they'll open up postseason play against rival Cape Central Monday at 7 p.m. at Cape Central High School

"I feel like we have some good momentum going in to districts with five-straight wins," Sikeston head coach Gabe Dement said. "I think we're finally adapting to the changes that we made when Kylie (Noe) and Larysa (McClellon) went down. I think we're meshing at the right point in time. The girls have a lot of confidence in each other and it has shown on the field."

As Dement noted the Lady Bulldogs were forced to deal with adversity when a total of four starters were out at one point in the final month of the season.

While they got two of those starters back, Sikeston will be without the services of Noe and McClellan the rest of the year.

In Noe the Lady Bulldogs lost a freshman who collected nine points, including three goals, before doing down with an injury. McClellan, a junior, is the team's second leading scorer with eight goals and 21 points even after missing several weeks of play.

With the injuries and other struggles came a second-half stretch where Sikeston lost four-straight games and four of five.

Since then, however, the Lady Bulldogs have won six of their last seven games and collected five-straight wins to end the regular season. In their last five contests they've outscored opponents a combined 22-1.

Dement credits Sikeston's recent success to finally gelling after being forced to deal with constant adjustments to the lineup.

That includes the emergence of freshman Mackenzie Yant, who took over as a forward and has become the second-best active point scorer on the team. Yant has four goals and eight assists for a total of 16 points entering the postseason.

"The last few games Yant has come on strong," Dement said. "She had to take Larysa's place up top and with a freshman you're not sure what you're going to get out of her. But she's really impressed us. She had two goals and three assists in (Thursday's) game. She's really came on strong here at the end of the season."

Sikeston's Torrie Helms gets the ball past a Farmington defender on Tuesday evening at the Sikeston Sports Complex. (David Jenkins photo)

Sikeston's Torrie Helms gets the ball past a Farmington defender on Tuesday evening at the Sikeston Sports Complex. (David Jenkins photo)

Yant's emergence along with that of several other younger players has helped ease the pressure opposing defenses can put on junior Torrie Helms.

Helms has been on a tear all season. She scored her 28th goal in the Lady Bulldog's 6-0 blowout of Fredericktown Thursday to set a new single-season school goal record.

Helms now has 68 points on the year and countless hat tricks to best the next player on the roster by over 40 points.

Though teams will certainly still key on Helms, Dement hopes the emergence of several new players late in the season will keep defenses honest.

"It helps whenever you have another option besides Torrie up top," Dement said. "If she needs to relieve pressure she can find Mack and we can trust her to score. Also lately (junior) Claudea Kuykendall and (sophomore) Grace Hamra have really helped the offense by just gluing the defense together and helping transition play. Claudea and Grace will be keys definitely in districts if we're successful. If they play well and help us transition to the forwards then we'll be successful."

Facing Cape Central in the opening round Sikeston will see a team they split their regular season series with 1-1. The Lady Bulldogs lost to the Lady Tigers 1-0 in mid-April on the road, but got revenge last week with a 3-0 home win.

Sikeston's win over Cape Central was one of nine shutouts their defense pitched this year, including three-straight to end the regular season. The Lady Bulldogs stand at 13-10 on the year and hold the third-seed while Cape Central is seeded second.

The winner of Monday's semifinal will move on to play the winner of Poplar Bluff and Farmington in the championship game Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Cape Central High School.

"Hopefully that (late season win over Cape) translates into confidence on the field when the whistle blows Monday," Dement said. "Cape being on their home field, that's something we have to overcome, but I think we will. We match up well for sure and they have a couple dangerous players we have to watch for.

"One of them being senior Abby Schupert. We have to key on her and make sure we slow her down. I think as long as we pass, move and play aggressive we'll have a good chance."