St. Pius X drops title game in Missouri Class 2 girls soccer

St. Pius X girls soccer coach Todd Ashby spent the week leading up to the Missouri Class 2 state tournament wading through an ocean of texts from mysterious phone numbers.

After a bit of investigating, he discovered that the majority of them were from former players passing on their congratulations and well-wishes for the team’s eighth tournament bid in Ashby’s tenure and what would become his first title-game appearance as well.

St. Pius X fell 3-2 to Duchesne in the championship on Saturday night at Blue Springs High School, but he said that should not mar the memories of an exciting season. The Warriors finished 21-5-0 after starting 1-3. They carried an 18-game winning streak into their final match.

“I have been in these matches before where you lose the game in the very last seconds and you think it’s the end of the world, but in a week or two you realize we played a (heck) of a match,” Ashby said. “I’m proud of every single one of them. They played great.”

The final blow came with just more than a minute on the clock when Duchesne’s Jane Skaggs buried a shot into the top left corner of the goal from 10 yards out. It was her second goal in two games despite coming into the weekend with only one in her first 21 matches.

“I saw her come sweeping back around, and she hit a shot that no goalkeeper is going to save,” Ashby said. “That thing was upper 90, just beneath the crossbar. It was a shot that she had to make to score because otherwise it would have gotten blocked.”

St. Pius X dug itself a hole early by allowing goals in the fifth and sixth minutes. The first came when Madeline Cowell connected with Courtney Reimer, who headed in an arching corner kick past the outstretched arms of St. Pius X’s Anna Lillig. Moments later, Ryan Kielty picked up a cross from Madeline Goeke and tapped it in to extend the lead.

It took some time, but St. Pius X found its footing midway through the half with a breakaway goal from Sydney Routh. She added another in the 41st minute, tying the score. She finished the season with a team-best 41 goals in 24 games.

“The girls got their composure, recognized we still had more than 60 minutes to play and they understood that we had to fix our problems,” Ashby said. “We did, but we just ran out of time.”

The Warriors gave up seven shots in the first half but buckled down to allow just three more in the second. Routh had three of St. Pius X’s four shots in the match with two on goal.

Lillig, who is headed to UMKC next season, finished with four saves in the match and 93 for the season.

This story was originally published June 6, 2015 at 7:09 PM with the headline "St. Pius X drops title game in Missouri Class 2 girls soccer."