Semoball

Mules net first soccer win

By DAR STAFF

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Poplar Bluff Mules soccer team ended the Notre Dame Soccerfest on a high note Saturday afternoon as they took home a 2-1, come-from-behind victory over Sikeston.

The win concluded the tournament with Poplar Bluff placing seventh out of the eight teams involved.

After an 8-0 loss to Notre Dame on Thursday night, Poplar Bluff matched up against Jackson on Friday and lost 2-0. Scoring goals for the Indians were Clayton Baker and Josephn Shultz.

Poplar Bluff head coach Derek Reasons was disappointed in the loss, but the team still had a good chance to come out on top.

"We did matchup well against (Jackson)," Reasons said. "We didn't have our best game, we kinda came out flat."

Reasons noted that junior goalkeeper, Jay Raulston, made 20 saves in the loss and the team had some close calls offensively.

"We had a couple scoring opportunities, but were unable to finish them," Reasons said.

Poplar Bluff went down early on Saturday as well as Sikeston's Jordan Davis scored the first goal of the game with 22 minutes left in the first half.

The Mules finally scored their first goal of the tournament with eight minutes left in the first half when Josh Thompson fed a pass to Dustin Calvart who beat the goalkeeper.

The second half saw just how aggressive each team could be.

"Both teams came out with different formations," Reasons said. "It was more attack-oriented. There were quite a few opportunities for each team."

But it was Poplar Bluff which had the last laugh. Thompson netted his first goal of the season on a free kick that ultimately beat Sikeston with 29 minutes left in the game.

After the goal, the Bulldogs went on the attack but Raulston came up huge denying Sikeston of corner kicks and crossing passes. Raulston made 10 saves on the game.

"We placed seventh and played for pride (in the final game)," Reasons said. "We had a pretty tough bracket but we would of liked to have done better."

The Mules travel to West Plains on Monday.

CROSS COUNTRY

Poplar Bluff junior Travis Blalock won the senior class race at Jackson with a course-record 12 minutes, 25 seconds in the 2.35-mile race. The run beat the course record set by former Poplar Bluff runner, John-Mark Lewis, who set the mark in 2005 at 12:28.

Jackson's Greg Gibson placed second with a 12:29 time.

Sophomore Hannah Blalock placed second in the girls division with a time of 14:42.

"We had an amazing day overall," head coach Beth Lewis said.

Freshman Jason Keena placed third in the freshman race with a time of 11:38 in the 1.9-mile race.

In the junior high boys race, Poplar Bluff came up one point short of Cape Girardeau, 48-47. The race featured all first-time runners for the Mules.

The Mules placed three runners in the top five, despite missing two of their best runners.

Kortez Ellis placed second with a time of 9:11 while Mark Keena placed third at 9:13 and Bailey Davidson placed in third at 9:17.

In the girls race, Allison Huskey ran out not only her closest human opponent as well as a poodle that got loose for the last 15 meters of the race. Riley Greenwell placed seventh with a time of 11:39, Adrian Burfew placed 17th at 12:40 and Casey Kimbrow placed 19th at 12:52. Four of the five runners for the girls junior high squad are also basketball players. The team overall placed second overall.

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