Bulldogs Go 1-2 at Mattoon Soccer Tourney

MATTOON -- Effingham St. Anthony High School traveled to Mattoon for a four team tournament during the weekend

"Let me say our first game Friday night was very, very cold, and it rained for almost three-fourths of the game," said St. Anthony Coach Eric Morales. "Play went back and forth all game, pretty even from both teams. Later in the second half of the game, Mattoon took a long kick from 25 yards out. Our goalie had the ball very easy, only for the wind to turn it in another direction and fall shy of the goal post only to roll into the post and trickle into the goal.

For a brief 30 to 45 seconds everyone stood in awe with blank faces, looking at each other wondering how and if it went in. As the refs looked cluelssly at each other, one shrugged his shoulders held his hands up and blew his whistle as a goal. After a long soaking, and cold evening Mattoon came out with the win 1-0.

"The following morning we traveled back to Mattoon to finish out the tournament. We played in what felt like freezing temperatures, with gusts of winds of up to 20mph. WE played a good game considering the conditions, coming off with the win over St. Joe-Ogden, 2-1."

Peter Keller had both assists to Ryan Kruger who had both goals. St. Anthony had about a 30 minute break before the last and final game.

"Everyone was tired, and cold and wore out, with these kind of conditions, it wears a person out quick," said Morales. "We played Arthur to a dualing match of lots of back and forth. Arthur pressured us a lot, and they came to play. We played to a 0-0 game at halftime. During halftime we spent most of the time trying to keep players warm and uncramped due to the weather. Six minutes into the second half. St. Anthony keeper Nick Grunloh tracked down a loose ball, grabbed it, only to slip and fall on the ground, with the ball popping out of his side and the ball just rolled enough to break the barrier of the goal line, giving Arthur the edge 1-0.

"Despite the 14 shots on goal after that, we could not find the back of the net, just many, many near misses. Ending the game with Arthur 1-0. We finished the tournament 1-2. There was many factors in the play today, the conditions were very, very rough and we were nursing many, many injuries. I am very happy with our performance and being this close to regionals, you just wanna finish with no serious injuries and all your players. Our bench, which consists of jv players, stepped up to do what they needed, so that our varsity didn't get to banged up. It was a great tournament for our first year."

St Anthony is now 14-4-2 and returns to action Tuesday hosting Centralia Christ Our Rock.