For the first 39:45 it was anybody's match. The last 40:15 it was all Webb City.
Webb City scored the first goal of the match with 15 seconds left in the first half and then added six more goals in the second to claim a 7-0 decision over the McDonald County Lady Mustangs in the semifinals of the Missouri Class 3 District 12 Soccer Tournament held Monday night at Webb City High School.
The fourth-seeded Lady Mustangs escaped two near misses in the final 12 minutes of the first half, one shot off the crossbar and another off the goal post, and it appeared they would go into intermission in a scoreless tie with the top-seeded Lady Cardinals.
But freshman Mileah Metcalf found a loose ball in front of the goal after a corner kick and knocked it to the back of the net for the match's first goal.
Despite dominating play for most of the half, Webb City was shut out until Metcalf's goal in the closing seconds. The Lady Cardinals had nine shots on goal and six corner kicks while McDonald County failed to have any shots or corner kicks.
McDonald County goalie Nicole Salas had one save in the first half and finished the match with seven after facing 17 shots in the second half.
Metcalf scored her second goal less than three minutes into the second half. Lily Spikereit made it 3-0 a few minutes later before Sydney Dixon scored back-to-back goals to give Webb City a 5-0 lead with 15 minutes left.
Metcalf scored with 10 minutes left for the hat trick. Webb City closed out the scoring on a goal by Ayleen Castro with two minutes left.
"We played really well the first half," said coach James Carter. "Webb City is a lot to handle and really athletic. They have three really good players at the top. Our girls hung in there as long as they could; but the game is not 40 minutes, it's 80 minutes.
"The girls had a good year this year and got a lot better. If you look at our scores from last year and compare them to this year against similar teams, it is not even close. We probably had four or five one-goal games that just didn't go our way. It's not really hard to figure out when you start looking at scores from last year that the girls have gotten a lot better. We are young and lose just three seniors. Raye (Pearcy), Mabely (Teodocio) and Karla (Barreda) have done a great job and will be missed."
McDonald County finishes the season with a 1-8 record in just its third year of the program.
Cassville
The Lady Mustangs picked up their only win of the season with a 1-0 victory over Cassville on May 8 at Cassville.
Junior Helen Reyes scored in the first half for the game's only goal.
Sports on 05/17/2018