Mitan records hat trick as Helias defeats Fatima

WESTPHALIA - It's been five games since Ben Mitan strayed out from between the pipes, leaving behind his role as Helias goalkeeper to become a center midfielder.

It's working out better than anyone could have imagined.

Mitan continued his recent run of goal-scoring proficiency Tuesday, recording a hat trick in the first half as Helias rolled to a 5-1 win at Fatima.

Coupled with a pair of goals in Monday's win against Father Tolton, Mitan now has five goals in his past two games.

"I feel great - I've never known what it's like to score this many goals," Mitan said with a smile. "My teammates make me feel great out there, they're very welcoming. I'm just one of them out there."

Helias head coach Michael Metzger said moving Mitan was born out of necessity for the final game of the Capital City Invitational.

"We had a bunch of injuries and our guys were out of gas when we went into that Poplar Bluff game," Metzger said. "We had to move some things around and Mitan used to play center midfield. Plus, we get our keepers involved a lot in our foot drills and the technical thinks we do at practice, and he's impressive.

"As a coaching staff we talked about it and then approached him and said, "What do you think? Are you willing to give it a whirl?' And he said, "Absolutely.'

"We were like, "We have two other goalkeepers on the team, let's put Mitan out there and have him control the middle and do good things there.'"

Mitan had the final three goals of the first half, which ended with Helias up 4-0. But it was Matthew Schulte who got the Crusaders on the board first, drilling a shot from more than 40 yards out past the Fatima goalkeeper just 1:03 into the game.

Mitan got his first goal with 26:14 left before halftime on a header off a cross from Nick Brandt.

A rain that was heavy at times descended on the field about eight minutes later and lasted for almost the rest of the half. Right about the time it lightened up, Mitan got back in the swing of things.

With 4:05 left before halftime, he took another cross, this one from Jack Schrimpf, and headed it home. Mitan said he was surprised to score again.

"I thought, "I'll give it a try,' but I didn't think it was going to happen," he said.

Then with just 54 seconds left before halftime, a cross by Brandt just missed one teammate's head and found its way to Mitan, who booted it home.

"I don't know how that (pass) got through, but I was able to get it," he said.

At haltime, Helias held a 19-2 lead in shots, including a 10-0 edge in shots on goal.

"I feel like the organization of our team is coming - it's getting better," Metzger said. "You can see it in our last couple games we've played."

Fatima coach Kirby Keth said his team, which boasts seven sophomores, is experiencing some growing pains.

"It's a learning process, and a growing process, and (assistant) coach (Matt Eisterhold) and I are trying to get them to grow faster," he said. "When you're in a program this size, with the numbers we have, you really have to bring young kids along a little earlier than you would like. They have to mature and they have to go through some tough stages."

The second half was a little less lopsided, with Helias outshooting Fatima 13-5 (6-2 on goal).

After having the Homecoming dance Sunday night, following it up with games on successive nights, and facing games Thursday at Mexico and Saturday at home against Hannibal, Metzger said the team might have lost a little focus.

"I think in the second half we could have moved the ball better," he said. "I think we lost a lot of our intensity. It's been a busy couple of days for the players, so I'm not going to be too hard on them.

Brandt scored off an assist from Braden Remmert with 17:47 left in the game to put the Crusaders up 5-0.

Fatima's lone goal came with 6:35 left when Luke Rehagen ran down a long ball and knocked it in off the post.

"Our kids are quite capable, and when they decide to play well, they can go at people," Keth said. "They've got to maintain their composure on the field, and they lost their composure tonight and started playing kickball against a good team. That's the youth we're talking about."

The Crusaders improved to 9-6, while the Comets dropped to 10-7.

In the JV game, which consisted of one 30-minute half, Helias (10-4) posted a 2-0 win.

Luke Mertens scored the first goal off an assist from Jacob Frank, while Frank had the other goal off an assist from Jonathan Garner.