Pembroke Hill, Pleasant Hill bow out in Missouri girls high school soccer semifinals

The Missouri girls Class 2 high school soccer championship will be up for grabs in Kansas City Thursday, but two area schools that had a chance to vie for it were knocked out of the running on Wednesday.

In semifinal games contested at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Visitation Academy beat Pembroke Hill 1-0 and Notre Dame of Cape Girardieau bested Pleasant Hill 3-2.

Visitation Academy (17-4) will play Notre Dame (25-1-1) for the Class 2 title Thursday at 2 p.m.; Pembroke Hill (11-9) and Pleasant Hill (23-2) will meet in the third-place game at 10 a.m.

Pleasant Hill opened the scoring against Notre Dame with a goal from senior Mackenzie Dimarco midway through the first half, but Notre Dame equalized before halftime on a goal by Allison Buchheit. Dimarco, one of the most prolific scorers in Missouri soccer history, found the net again in the second half, but Notre Dame advanced on goals by Hannah Miller and Julia Williams.

Dimarco will attend Emporia State on a soccer scholarship, while Pleasant Hill coach Al Iantorno is retiring at season’s end after a long coaching career at the high school and collegiate levels, including at Central Missouri.

In the later Class 2 semifinal, Visitation Academy’s Jamie Tottleben opened the scoring in the fifth minute, and that one goal was enough.

The Class 1 state semifinals were contested later Wednesday, with St. Vincent (16-7) beating New Covenant (13-8) 3-0, and Duchesne (12-8) topping Lone Jack (17-5) 2-1. The Class 1 finale is set for Thursday at 4 p.m.

The bigger-classification semifinals are Friday, also at Swope Park. In Class 4, Lee’s Summit West (16-3-1) takes on Nerinx Hall (17-3-2) Friday at noon; Liberty (21-2) plays Francis Howell Central (15-8-1) at 2 p.m. And in Class 3, it’s Kearney (20-2) vs. St. Dominic (24-2-1) on Friday at 2 p.m. followed by Rockwood Summit (18-3-3) vs. Union (26-1-1) at 4.

The Class 3 and 4 championship finals and third-place games are Saturday at Swope.

This story was originally published May 29, 2019 at 5:11 PM.