North Beats South At Girls Soccer All-Star Event

Samantha Jones was a bit surprised when her name was announced as the Most Valuable Player of the North Team in her team's 6-2 victory over the South Team at the 2011 UMB Bank High School Senior Soccer All-Star Game. The match was hosted by the Missouri Athletic Club and played Thursday night at the Anheuser-Busch Center.

It was not expected that a defender would win the honors in a showcase game that was dominated by offense.

"I froze for a second," said Jones, a recent McCluer North graduate who will move on to play at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. "I knew I didn't score or have an assist, so I was not expecting to be named the MVP.

“It's a great honor and tonight was so much fun. It didn't really matter too much which team won. It was a friendly. I had never been in a game like this before. I didn't expect this many people to show up."

It was a rough night for the South defense, although defender and Eureka graduate Torie Goode shined at times, making a sparkling goal-saving play in the first half.

"It is tough to play in a game like this with girls from different teams," said Goode, who will attend Columbia University in New York City. "We worked so well as a team at Eureka and knew what everybody was doing. I still had a good time. It was awesome to play with all these girls."

The big crowd was treated to a show by the North and in particular by players from Francis Howell.

Howell players combined for four of the team's six goals.

Melanie Hunt, who is headed to Truman State University, scored the first goal of the game and added a goal in the second half.

Ally Rodriguez, who will attend Rockhurst University, also had a goal in each half.

Another Howell graduate, Julie Mooney, had an assist on a goal by Kayla Nurnberger (Washington) in the first half as the North raced to a 3-0 lead.

The North led 4-0 before Michelle Auer (Notre Dame), who led the entire St. Louis area in scoring this fall, tallied for the South. Hunt and Natalie Kuhlenberg (Incarnate Word) scored for the North before Molly Huber (Ursuline) scored in the game's final minute.

That capped an interesting day for Huber, who was named the South Most Valuable Player.

"I'm pretty excited, especially since I didn't get into the game until the second half," Huber said.

Huber is attending the University of Kentucky and has already started summer classes there. She flew to St. Louis for the long holiday weekend.

"I was supposed to be here two hours before the game," Huber said. "But the flight was delayed and I spent a lot of time in the airport in Memphis and wasn't able to get here until halftime."

Huber had a quick warm-up at half and then assisted on Auer's goal and scored one of her own.

Two girls were honored between the girls and boys game. Mallory Yant (Ursuline) was named the area's Goalkeeper of the Year, while Miranda Graham (McCluer North) received a $1,000 scholarship.