With the end of the regular season fast approaching, thoughts are starting to turn to the soccer postseason. So it seems only fitting the Southern Boone Eagles and Helias Crusaders put together a game Saturday that had a definite playoff feel to it.
A total of 80 chippy, hard-fought minutes weren't enough to separate the Eagles and Crusaders, as the game was knotted at 1 after regulation.
And just when you thought you might be settling in for the maximum of 20 minutes of overtime, the Eagles got the golden goal after just 33 seconds of extra time to post a 2-1 victory at the 179 Soccer Park.
"The fans may love it, but one week or two weeks (of postseason atmosphere) is enough for me - I don't need to add another extra bonus week onto it," Southern Boone coach Chris Miller said with a smile.
Miller added the game was similar to the postseason, where you have to make changes on the fly to be successful.
"If there was ever a dress rehearsal, this was it," he said. "But we needed this, (Helias) pushed us. They had us stretched all over the place. ... We changed some things as we went and tweaked and pulled and did this and did that."
The game-winner was a pretty goal where Southern Boone's Ian Meentemeyer won a loose ball, leaped into the air and volleyed it home with the outside of his foot to the far corner of the goal.
"That was an unbelievable finish, it really was," Helias coach Michael Metzger said. "That was fantastic."
Miller agreed with that assessment.
"You don't see many of those from high-school kids," he said. "It took a great goal to beat them. We couldn't get by (Helias defender Sam) Heckart all game long, so we'll take it."
The win improved Southern Boone to 20-0-1, while Helias fell to 12-8.
"The team that wanted it more came out and got the goal (in overtime)," Metzger said. "They're going to do good things in the postseason, as are we. That was a battle."
A battle, indeed, as the game featured a whopping 34 fouls. The defenses were stout, making scoring attempts hard to come by until Helias finally broke through with 111/2 minutes left in the first half.
That's when Braden Remmert took a pass from Logan Pfenenger and blasted home a shot for his 31st goal of the season, setting a single-season mark for Helias.
"Remmert had a great finish there," Metzger said. "Pfenenger played a real nice through ball to get it to him and Remmert did good to finish it."
That was it for the scoring in the first half, as Southern Boone had an 8-5 lead in shots, but Helias had a 3-1 edge in shots on goal.
Helias nearly escaped regulation with the win, but Southern Boone was able to break through with 4 1/2 minutes left when Ian McCluskey dropped off a pass for Meentemeyer, who slipped behind the defense and beat the goalkeeper to tie it at 1.
"McCluskey going up and winning the header on that and then playing it through, that was actually something we were working on (Friday) in a drill, and we couldn't do it to save our lives," Miller said. "We could have stayed out there for 24 hours and never would have gotten it right. Then here with five minutes left we get a little break and do it.
"You give Ian a little bit of an opening and he'll find a way."
Roughly five minutes later, Meentmeyer got his 37th goal of the season to give the Eagles a come-from-behind win.
"We keep finding ways to do this," said Miller, whose team is ranked in No. 2 in the state in Class 2. "We've scored late a couple times, we've had to come back from halftime deficits three or four times this year. It's helpful when you have a bunch of seniors. They've been through this."
The stats for the game were effectively even. Southern Boone led 13-12 in shots, Helias led 5-4 in shots on goal and both teams had four corner kicks. The Crusaders had 20 fouls to the Eagles' 14.
"That was a good test and it lets us know some things we need to work on," Metzger said. "I'm not sure how much of it is technical as much as it is mental at this point. We've got to have the desire and the drive to come out and finish games like this. I'm sure there's going to be situations in the postseason where we may have to be prepared to come out and play as long as it takes and do whatever it takes to get the job done."
Helias will host Hickman on Tuesday, while Southern Boone hosts Father Tolton on Monday.
In Saturday's JV game, Helias posted a 1-0 victory.
Luke Mercurio had the lone goal off an assist from Jack Rundle. Sam Verry got the shutout in goal for the Crusaders (13-6).