By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Glendale soccer team’s streak of five-straight shutouts ended less than two minutes into Saturday’s Class 3 quarterfinal at Webb City, and with the Falcons still trailing 1-0 at halftime, head coach Jeff Rogers told his team that the next goal would set the tone for the rest of the game.
That next goal almost came from Webb City – but Glendale keeper Cole Vincel made a diving save on a penalty kick in the 54th minute and Lincoln Wimmer scored twice in the final minutes as the Falcons earned a 2-1 win over the Cardinals and advanced to the Final Four for the ninth time in program history.
“For Cole to save that PK, if he makes it that’s 2-0 and they’re probably going to St. Louis,” Rogers said.
Webb City’s Alex Flores took the shot and almost put it in – he’d made it a 1-0 game when he scored on a free kick for his 29th goal of the season. Cardinals coach Nick Harmon said he couldn’t have put it in a better spot, “the kid just made a spectacular save.”
“I think that was kind of the momentum shift and credit to their keeper,” he said. “To be honest, I think that won them the game because the goals they scored really weren’t anything fancy, they had some lucky bounces and their guys capitalized and were able to get on the end of it. For sure I think if we bury that, I think it’s game over.”
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Wimmer took care of the rest. He scored in the 69th minute with a shot off his left foot after beating two defenders to tie it up, then scored the game winner with 1:08 left on the scoreboard in the aftermath of a free kick.
“It was bouncing around a lot, a lot of ricochets and it finally got on my thigh and I got to volley it in,” he said.
Wimmer said Glendale players had their heads down at the end of the first half, but “Cole told us to get our heads up. He’s great at doing that.”
“It was surprising,” Rogers said. “You show up for a game like this and we had kids in our starting lineup that just dropped with injuries. We were a little flustered. We had kids that aren’t normally on the field and were out there so we had to settle in … I knew we were going to get our chances, especially in the second half. I knew we would eventually find one and I figured if we could get one we’d have the momentum to go ahead. Webb City played a great game and made us earn it.”
The Cardinals finished with a 13-12 record but made it further than they had in 23 years – their last district title was 1999.
“And we’ve got a young squad,” Harmon said. “We obviously wish we could have gone further this year but we’re proud of our seniors for leading the way and we’re excited about our young guys because we’ll be back here next year.”
Glendale, meanwhile, won for the 21st time in 22 tries and improved to 24-4 overall. The Falcons head to Fenton next weekend where they’ll face East (Kansas City) in the semifinals at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Webster Groves and Whitfield face off in the other game.
“We’re all really excited,” Wimmer said. “The class before us was really good and I wouldn’t say they doubted us, but they were a little hesitant about us getting to St. Louis. I’ll have to tell them we won this game.”
“We lost so many players to graduation and I told them on day one that they were going to surprise a lot of teams this year and they have,” Rogers said. “We’re excited to be there for our ninth trip to the Final Four and my message to them is why not you? I’m excited to get them there, they know what it’s about and we’re excited to go and represent southwest Missouri.”
