Rockhurst finishes third in Missouri Class 4 state soccer tournament
Rockhurst holds numerous records in the 48-year history of the Missouri state soccer.Tournament.
The Hawklets have the most playoff appearances (34), the most playoff wins (70), the most consecutive playoff appearances (27) and the most top-four finishes (22), among other records.
Rockhurst did not want to add to another record Saturday as the Hawklets have more fourth-place finishes (four) than any team in state playoff history.
That number remained at four as the Hawklets won a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Nixa Saturday in the Class 4 third-place game at the World Wide Technology Soccer Park.
“This kind of game is what high school sports is all about,” Rockhurst coach Chris Lawson said.
“Things are not always going to go your way in life and things did not go our way Friday night (in a 4-1 semifinal loss to Francis Howell). “I was interested to see how they would bounce back and I thought their response was great. Nixa is a good team, which beat the defending state champion Lee’s Summit to get here. We needed to play well and we did.”
Keaton Schieffer, who was one of seven senior starters on the Hawklets, scored what proved to be the game’s only goal early in the second half. It came after a nice effort from another senior, John Mullen.
“It was a good buildup from my teammates and just a very unselfish play from John, who is one of our co-captains,” Schieffer said.
“I think he could have scored himself but instead he passed it to me and I had the easy part of just tapping it in.”
The Eagles, who have a 40-goal scorer (Joey Clem) and scored 100 goals in the regular season, had some pressure late but were never able to get the equalizer past Rockhurst’s Nicholas Moyer, who recorded the shutout.
It was only the second time that Nixa was shut out this season. The Eagles lost two games in less than 24 hours after only losing one in 26 games in the regular season.
“It was an enjoyable season and certainly one to remember,” Schieffer said. “And I know the seniors in particular wanted to make sure we won the last game of the season. You always want to out on a good note.”
Rockhurst finished the season with a record of 21-7-2.
“"The players are different and the system is different but we accomplished a lot just as we have the past 21 years,” Lawson said. “I think the season was great. We beat some nationally ranked teams and had a lot of good wins. We didn't get it done here Friday night but we responded and ended the season on a good note.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 9:30 PM with the headline "Rockhurst finishes third in Missouri Class 4 state soccer tournament."