By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Four district championship appearances. Four district titles.
Led by Josh Call, Sean Perryman and Stephen Bates, the Glendale High School seniors made it 4-for-4 with their fourth district championship in four years in a 5-0 Class 3 District 10 win over Parkview on Thursday night at Glendale.
“This is what we’re known for – postseason,” said Glendale head coach Jeff Rogers, who led the Falcons to their 20th district title in his 26th season. “Our kids are really focused right now and playing well.”
Call got the Falcons on the board just four minutes into the game with a goal off a rebound and assist from freshman Grant Compere.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
But it was another 19 minutes before the Falcons, who improved to 17-8 overall, found the back of the net again, which came on an unassisted goal from Perryman.
“In postseason sometimes, goals can be hard to find,” Rogers said. “They (Parkview) were sitting in quite a bit on us. With their formation, they were trying to get players behind the ball. But once our kids figured that out, and had a run at them, it kind of made the difference.”
Another nine minutes later, Ryan Feeney found Bates in front of the goal for Glendale’s third score. The Falcons’ final goal of the half came at the 3:08 mark on a Shawn Guillot cross to Clay Compere.
“We finally started clicking as a team,” Call said. “Once we started passing the ball around, stuff started opening up and goals came easy for us.”
Parkview (9-14), which was making its first district final appearance in about 13 years, struggled to keep Glendale at bay in the first half.
“They’re great at possession and moving the ball around,” Vikings head coach Shelby Stewart said. “We didn’t defend very well in the first half. Tactically, they’re a very, very good team, so give them credit for that. We tried our best to play our game plan and it didn’t quite work out.”
Though the Vikings lose five senior starters, Stewart says the future is bright for the program.
“We lose our leading scorer – Brody Johnson (and his 31 goals) – and we lose a couple of seniors on the backline in the center,” Stewart said. “We’ve got a lot to fill for sure, but we’ve also got a lot of young kids. I think we ended up starting two or three freshmen and we’ve got a lot of sophomores on this team, so we’ve got a lot to look forward to in the near future.”
The near future for Glendale includes a sectional matchup with Rolla, a 1-0 winner over Jefferson City Helias Catholic, next Tuesday at home.
It will be a rematch of a Sept. 19 game that Glendale won 3-2.
“It was one of those games where both of us had a lot of kids out injured, but they’ve got a great program and coach Howard does a great job with their kids, year in and year out,” Rogers said. “And this was a group that had a lot of kids starting at a young age that couldn’t get past Helias, and they did that (Wednesday), so they’re going to roll into town with confidence and it’ll be a great game.”
Call is hoping to draw from the Falcons’ previous postseason experience.
“Hopefully, if we play as a team, we can get back to that final four like we did our freshman and sophomore years,” Call said. “The seniors (at that time) really showed leadership to us and I’m hoping our seniors – me, and our other captain (Aaron Guilliams) and the seniors – can propel us into the postseason because that’s what we really need.”
And with sizeable victories in their district games (10-0 over Hillcrest, 5-0 over Parkview), Rogers was able to rest his starters and play more players.
“I think we played probably 25 kids tonight, which anytime you can do that in postseason it’s special,” Rogers said. “I’m happy for our kids and we know that the road just keeps getting tougher and tougher.
“It’s more of a mental thing now, so we’ll just kind of enjoy it tonight and go back to work tomorrow.”
Scoring summary
GLENDALE 5, PARKVIEW 0
Class 3 District 10 Championship
Parkview (9-14) 0-0—0
Glendale (17-8) 4-1—5
First half
Glendale – Josh Call (assisted by Grant Compere) – 35:59
Glendale – Sean Perryman (unassisted) – 16:54
Glendale – Stephen Bates (assisted by Ryan Feeney) – 7:59
Glendale – Clay Compere (assisted by Shawn Guillot) – 3:08
Second half
Glendale – Perryman (penalty kick) – 27:24
Up next: Class 3 sectionals – Rolla (17-5-3) at Glendale (16-8), Nov. 1
