Battered Crusaders finish soccer tourney with loss

Helias' Ian Luebbert celebrates after scoring the goal that tied Saturday's game with Raymore-Peculiar at 2 in the
Capital City Invitational at the 179 Soccer Park in Jefferson City.
Helias' Ian Luebbert celebrates after scoring the goal that tied Saturday's game with Raymore-Peculiar at 2 in the Capital City Invitational at the 179 Soccer Park in Jefferson City.

It's a good thing the Capital City Invitational was only two days and not three, or the Helias soccer team might have had to forfeit a game.

Already missing players due to injury coming into the event, the Crusaders had a string of players come off the field for a variety of reasons Saturday.

The latest in the string were knee and ankle injuries, with the most serious a probable concussion suffered by Sam Heckart in the Crusaders' third and final game of the event.

Helias, which also played the day before the tournament, is ready for a break.

"After four games in three days, it's going to take a toll," Helias coach Chuck Register said. "The injuries piled up here in the last game."

The last game was a 3-0 loss to Sedalia Smith-Cotton, which was scoreless until 31/2 minutes before halftime when the Tigers scored. Smith-Cotton added a pair of goals less than three minutes apart in the second half, the first coming with 16 minutes left in the game.

"After the first half, we were dead on our feet," Register said. "Then the injuries piled up and it's kind of hard to keep playing."

Helias, which is now 3-8-2 on the season, started Saturday with a 2-all tie with Raymore-Peculiar. Heckart and Ian Luebbert scored the goals, while the assists on both went to Braden Remmert.

The Crusaders went 0-1-2 in the tournament, good enough to tie for third place with the event's point system. They lost a tiebreaker with Joplin to finish fourth.

"All in all, we found out what we could do," Register said. "Those first two games we played, we were so close to winning both of them. You do the best you can and from what we learned, hopefully it carries over and hopefully we start playing better (this) week."

Helias hosts Father Tolton on Tuesday, with the varsity game to start at about 6 p.m.

"We're hurting - it's OK if we get a couple days off before we play again," Register said. "... Hopefully we'll get everybody back, even the guys who have been out for a week or so. Maybe we can start replenishing and start building up again."