Slip-Ups Cost Summit In Soccer Loss To Eureka

Even when defenses make a strong effort against her, as most teams have attempted to do throughout the 2011 season, Eureka's Hannah Leinert won’t let herself be denied.

She proved that once again—actually twice—on Monday, when the Wildcats visited the Falcon Soccer Stadium for a nonconference game against Rockwood Summit High.

Leinert, who found herself double- and triple-teamed most of the night, still managed to break free on two important occasions, which both led to goals in Eureka’s 2-0 win over the host Falcons.

“Hannah Leinert was the X-factor today,’’ Summit head coach Chris Kappler said. “She’s a finisher who makes the most of her chances. For the most part, I thought we did a pretty good job on her, but she gets away that one time in the first and just like that we’re down 1-0.”

Leinert’s goal in the first half came in the 11th minute of play, when senior teammate Torie Goode got around one Summit defender and made a terrific pass to Leinert, which sent the sophomore in on goal on a breakaway.

And Eureka’s leading scorer knew exactly what to do, slamming a shot past Summit goalkeeper Christie Seilfleisch and into the back of the net for a 1-0 Wildcats lead.

In the second half, it was Leinart’s turn to set up a score.

This time she beat a double-team just outside the left side of the Summit box, and fired a centering pass to the front of the Summit net.

Seilfleisch tried to cleared the ball away, and keep the score 1-0. But Eureka’s Sidney Allen, a junior defender, who was playing in the midfield on Monday, beat the Summit goalie to the pass and banged a shot into the empty net for her first goal of the season.

“Sidney’s a really terrific player,” Eureka head coach Bill Goggin said. “She’s kind of our withdrawn forward. So when she gets involved in the offense, it’s pretty exciting. That was a nice play.”

Allen made two other brilliant plays later in the second half, nearly scoring again with 25 minutes left, and setting up teammate Jenn Huber for a chance with seven minutes left, but both times Summit’s Seilfleisch made the save to keep the score 2-0.

A Eureka mistake in its own box gave Summit its best scoring chance of the day.

It came with just over three minutes left in the game when junior defender Haley Albert was called for a foul in the box, which gave the Falcons a penalty kick, which would’ve put them right back in the game.

Summit’s Kali Thomas took the shot, and blasted one towards the right side of the Eureka net.

But Wildcats goalie Ali Wallner dove hard to her left to make the save, then somehow got a hand on a rebound smash by Summit’s Ashley Bocek to keep the ball out of the net and preserve her fourth shutout of the season.

“I thought we played pretty well considering they have two national level players on defense, and another one out front,” Kappler said. “Even with that, we still have to capitalize on our the chances we get. We need somebody to step up and put this team on their back. We’re just not getting that from anybody right now.”

The Falcons will be right back at on Tuesday, when they travel to Creve Couer to take on Parkway Central High.

After that, Summit will have just one more regular season game, on Thursday at Parkway North High, before the start of the district playoffs next week. Both those games are set to kick-off at 4:15 p.m.

Eureka is also hoping to play two more games before districts next week.

The Wildcats have one game scheduled for sure, today in Webster Groves at Nerinx Hall at 4 p.m.

But Goggin is also hoping that a rained out game from back in April against Parkway North could be re-scheduled for Friday or Saturday of this week.

“Two more games would be ideal,” Goggin said. “We’re almost to where we want to be when the playoffs start. And I just think having that second game would really help us figure some things out.”