St. A Beats Olney, EHS, Altamont Drop Soccer Matches

Effingham St. Anthony High School's soccer team claimed a 3-1 victory over Olney to improve to 8-0-3 on the season Thursday.

"Walking out of work today, I had this great feeling," said St. Anthony Coach Eric Morales. "During the starting lineup, I leaned over to Coach Kruger and said, 'Coach I have a good feeling about tonight.'

"It was a hot hot start to the game, as we agreed with the Olney coach to water breaks. The game began and right away Olney came out aggressive winning all the balls and position. They took the first strike on goal, but keeper Alex Beesley was there to save it. We finally found our touch and got into the groove.

"With the clock reading only 24 minutes, Donovan Hammer took a corner kick right across the goal only to find Alex Deters on a nice service on the ball with his head, putting us up 1-0. The Tigers quickly regathered their thoughts and within 10 minutes snuck past the defense and sliced one right into the goal, tieing up the game at 1-1 as the half came to an end.

The start of the second half, St. Anthony stepped up the pace. Just three minutes in, Ryan Kruger found himself with a loose ball and dribbled his way through the defense and found the back of the net for a 2-1 lead.

"Our defense continued to play strong and not allow anyone to have a chance at our goal," said Morales. "Jacob Zimmerman stepped up big tonight on the defensive end. He outhustled every one of Olney's offensive players. As the team would say, "today was Zimmy's time to shine".

"Another 6-7 minutes after the second goal, Ryan Kruger dribbled the ball on a breakaway down the left side, beating the defender and taking a rocket of a shot with his left only to hit the bottom of the crossbar. The ball came roaring out with all its momentum on the opposite side of the shot and Alex Deters found himself in the right place at the right time to send the ball right back into the goal netting his second goal of the night and putting us up 3-1.

"We continued to take more shots on goal, pressuring the Tigers goalie repeatedly. We ended up with 19 shots on goal to Olney's six. Alex Beesley finished the game with five saves."

The junior varsity also got the won beating Olney 3-1.

The Bulldogs play host to Centralia Christ Our Rock Lutheran Saturday at 11 a.m.

At Salem

Effingham High School fell to host Salem, 3-1 in Thursday action.

"We played our best game of the season so far," said EHS Coach Lee Althoff.

Salem's Islam scored at the seven minute mark and Donoho then scored at the 13 minute mark in the first half for a 2-0 lead. EFfingham's Noah Mulheron pulled the Hearts within one at the 32nd minute.

In the second half, Salem's Donoho tallied the final goal for the Wildcats for the final 3-1 margin.

Effingham is now 1-9 on the season.

At Raymond

Raymond Lincolnwood came calling and blanked Altamont 2-0 Thursday.

Both Lincolnwood goals came in the first half.

Altamont drops to 6-5-1 on the season.

In junior varsity action, Lincolnwood took a 1-0 victory.

Altamont drops to 1-3.