St. Pius X girls soccer team falls short against three-time defending state champion

Three-time defending state champion Duchesne on Wednesday made sure St. Pius X didn’t deny the Pioneers an opportunity for a fourth consecutive Missouri Class 2 girls soccer state title.

Duchesne scored 33 seconds into the semifinal match, limited the Warriors to one shot and dominated time of possession in a 4-0 victory over Pius at Swope Soccer Village.

The game marked a rematch of last season’s Class 2 title game, in which Duchesne won 3-2.

“We returned almost everybody from last year and I thought we were even better this year, maybe not as good as them, but I thought we had a good shot at it,” St. Pius X senior Allison Malott said. “We thought this would be the championship game.”

Ryan Kielty volleyed a shot into the net in the game’s opening minute, and Duchesne led 2-0 at halftime thanks to Courtney Reimer’s header off a corner kick.

“It just wasn’t our day and wasn’t our game,” Pius coach Todd Ashby said. “Duchesne is a well-run, well-oiled team. They work like clockwork off those free kicks and corners. We knew what they were going to do, and we just couldn’t stop it.”

Malott’s scoring chance early in the second half represented the Warriors’ lone true scoring attempt of the match.

Reimer scored on another header off a corner, and Maria Wilder slid a shot into the back of the net for Duchesne’s two second-half goals.

“We thought down two, we could come back,” Malott said. “Once they scored that third and the fourth, we started to die down and just didn’t have any urgency.”

St. Pius X, 19-4, will play in the third-place match at noon Thursday.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 7:03 PM with the headline "St. Pius X girls soccer team falls short against three-time defending state champion."