MO BOYS: MSLA DII Semis: Eureka Stuns Ft. Zumwalt in OT
May 22nd, 2009
Junior middie Matt Vollmer scored the game-winning goal with 2:47 remaining in overtime to give second-seeded Eureka a dramatic, come-from-behind, 12-11 victory over sixth-seeded Fort Zumwalt in a Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association Division II semifinal Thursday at the Anheuser Busch Soccer Park in Fenton, Mo.
Vollmer finished with a left-handed shot from about five yards to give the Wildcats (15-2) their seventh straight win.
With the victory, Eureka has advanced to the Division II state championship game for the first time in program history and will face top-seeded Pembroke Hill on Saturday, May 23, at 11 a.m., CDT, at Anheuser Busch Soccer Park.
In the regular season, Pembroke Hill beat Eureka 7-6 on April 26 in the teams’ only meeting.
“It’s going to be a good game,” Eureka head coach Jon Silva said. “Hopefully, our kids are jacked up and ready to go. We’ve got practice tomorrow, and we’re looking forward to Saturday.”
In a losing effort on Thursday, senior middies John Pettis and Tyler Jarvis each finished with five points on three goals and two assists, junior attackman Hunter Tubbs scored three goals and senior middie Chad Gerdes added a pair for Fort Zumwalt, which finished the season 11-5.
The game was tied, 2-2, at the end of the first quarter, Eureka led 8-6 at halftime and Fort Zumwalt led 10-9 at the end of the third quarter.
The Jaguars pulled ahead 11-9 when Jarvis scored with 10:28 remaining in regulation, and Fort Zumwalt maintained a two-goal advantage for 9:30.
But Eureka finally answered with two goals in a 30-second stretch, the first coming with 1:58 remaining and the second coming with 1:28 to play, to tie it at 11-11.
“It was a hard-fought battle,” Silva said. “We came out flat in the second half but finished strong in the fourth quarter.”
fort zumwalt
although this was a well-played game between both teams, fort zumwalt did get ripped out of a few calls by the refs which lead to quick scoring by eureka. for instance, when their middy, Jon Pettis, got injured as soon as his foot stepped over the line when he was getting carried to the bench by the coach, the ref blew the whistle and eureka scored a quick goal. this was simply because they only had 4 defenders on the field at the time.....you cannot tell me that that call by the ref isnt ridiculous....i mean come on
Eureka scoring
In the winning effort Matt Vollmer led the way for Eureka with four goals including the overtime game winner. Sophomore Ryan Gardner added two goals and racked up five assists as well as 11 groundballs. Sophomore Matt Ward scored two goals and had two assists. Junior Matt Kraus and Sophomore Henry Tellini tallied two goals each to round out Eureka's scoring. Junior Goalie Anthony Paschke made 14 saves