Yanskey racks up four goals in Helias’ victory

Helias’ Lauren Alexander (left) battles Hannibal’s Cara Cook for the ball during Tuesday’s game at the 179 Soccer Park.
Helias’ Lauren Alexander (left) battles Hannibal’s Cara Cook for the ball during Tuesday’s game at the 179 Soccer Park.

If the Hannibal Lady Pirates have nightmares the next couple days, it’s safe to say they’ll probably feature Kayla Yanskey.

The junior forward/midfielder for Helias had four goals — including a hat trick in the second half — to spark the Lady Crusaders to a 5-1 win against the Lady Pirates on Tuesday night at the 179 Soccer Park.

Yanskey scored in a variety of ways from a variety of angles in the contest, getting the first four tallies of the contest for either side.

“We’ve been struggling with the offense, so it’s nice to finally score and take some of the pressure off our defense,” Yanskey said.

Yanskey’s first goal came with just 3:15 left in the first half, the only score of the first 40 minutes. After a deflected shot by Sarah Pierle, Yanskey was in the right place at the right time and put it home.

“Usually, once we score the first one we start playing a lot better,” Yanskey said. “So that was really a momentum changer for us.”

The next one came with 25:21 left in the second half on a penalty kick that came after Hannibal was called for a hand ball in the box.

“I always try to go in super-confident, otherwise I feel like I’m not going to make it,” Yanskey said. “So I was glad (head) coach (Brad Dempsey) let me take it.”

No. 3 came less than two minutes later. With 23:42 left to play, Yanskey took a pass from Abby Shepard and converted again.

“She’s been trying to play the diagonal ball all year and finally we connected,” Yanskey said. “She passed it right to me.”

Then with 14:37 left to play, a free kick from Lauren Alexander caught Hannibal napping and found Yanskey right in front of the goal, where she deflected off her stomach into the net.

“Coach has been telling us all year to play fast, and we finally did and Lauren played it in nicely.”

Dempsey said it was nice to see Yanskey have a big game.

“Kayla is a true competitor — obviously you’ve seen that from her in cross country,” he said. “She loves to compete. It was a great game by her.”

Helias’ final goal came with 9:36 left when a corner kick by Julie Harris was put home by Alexander.

Hannibal’s lone game came with 2:26 remaining when Shelby Stine scored off an assist from Lucy Roisum.

After a less-than-impressive first 30 minutes or so of game time, Dempsey was pleased with the way his team played the rest of the way.

“Right now, we have this unsettledness when we come out and we don’t score for a while,” he said. “Instead of just staying focused and composed, we tend to get anxious. We did that in the first half. The first goal played a big factor in us settling down.”

Helias ended up with slim advantages of 12-9 in shots and 7-5 in shots on goal. But converting almost half of those shots made things look a lot better.

“We have a young team and they have some anxiety — I don’t know if they’re just more comfortable playing with the lead or what,” Dempsey said. “But every day that we get to practice or play a game is going to matter. We’ve got a lot of players who are new to each other.”

Helias, which improved to 7-5, will play Saturday at Duchesne in a battle of state-ranked teams. Helias is No. 10 in Class 3 as determined by the Missouri High School Soccer Coaches Association, while Duchesne is the top-ranked squad in Class 2.

In Tuesday’s JV game, Helias notched a 3-0 victory. Kelsey Schenewerk, Michalee Sipi and Reese Hamilton had one goal each for the Lady Crusaders (6-1-1).

On Monday, the JV rolled to a 9-0 win against Kirksville as Sipi racked up five goals. Hamilton had one goal and one assist, while Maggie Winegar, Jennifer Szumigala and Maya Heckart had one goal each.