St. Anthony Downs COR, 7-1 In Soccer Action

Effingham St. Anthony High School traveled to Centralia to play Centralia Christ our Rock Lutheran in soccer competition Saturday.

"It was an early morning game, with a bit of some cool temperatures and a brisk breeze," said St. Anthony Coach Eric Morales. "Just 3 1/2 minutes in, Kyle Hartke found Ryan Kruger for the first goal of the morning for us. Two minutes immediately after that, Moises Lemus had a breakaway to Ian Harris who chipped the ball right over the keeper and Ian found the ball and chested it the rest of the way in, putting us up 2-0.

"We continued to slaughter the ball, shooting ball after ball towards the goal, just missing every time. With 15 minutes left in the half, Lemus again broke down the right side, putting the ball into the middle to find Kyle to finish the ball into the net and we were up 3-0. As we returned back to our side, COR quickly started the game, caught us unprepared and poked in their first goal of the morning, putting the score at 3-1 at halftime.

"COR came out in the second half on a quick spurt, trying to pressure our defense. As we quickly gathered our structure, two minutes into the game, James Kabbes found Ryan for his second goal of the morning, putting us up 4-1. Just minutes later, James broke out of a cluster and found Ryan again for his third goal of the morning putting us up 5-1. With 25 minutes left in the game we made some changes on the field, putting in a fresh new 11. Quickly after the change, Alex (Flash) Bloemer got a steal and made his way down the field, taking a nice shot on goal that was deflected by the keeper, but Moises was there to put the poke back in off the deflection and we were up 6-1.

"As the game came to a close with just a few minutes left, Alex Deters recovered a loose ball in the middle, made his way down the center and found sophmore Wyatt Lawrence who found the back of the net for the first time this year. That ended the game 7-1 in our favor.

"Everyone played very well. We practiced our plays and our networking with each other."

St. Anthony finished with over 30 shots on goal. Alex Beesley and Nick Grunloh, both St. Anthony keepers, finished with three saves apiece. St. Anthony improved to 11-1 and will travel to Altamont with its 11 game winning streak.