Lor's goal decides Central Missouri All-Star Game

It was one of those situations you don't often find yourself in the midst of: Wondering what the tiebreaking procedure will be for an all-star game.

But that was the case Thursday night at the 179 Soccer Park, as the Central Missouri All-Star Soccer Game was closing in on its 77th minute with nary a goal on the board.

However, that changed in a hurry as the Blue team's Timmy Lor (Sedalia Smith-Cotton) corralled a cross from Robbie Mueller (School of the Osage) and sent a blistering shot to the lower left corner.

The Blue team then survived a furious final push by the Red team, including a shot that needed to be saved as time expired to hold on for the 1-0 victory.

"On that goal, there was no one on the outside," Lor said. "I was playing center mid, but I thought, "Maybe I should grab the back side just in case something happens.' Then there comes the ball and at that time you've just got to focus and score."

Southern Boone coach Chris Miller, who coached the Blue team, said Lor made a nice reaction play.

"Our outside mid went in for the ball and it kind of went over his head, and (Lor) looped back around as he was trailing the play," Miller said. "He made a really nice read on it."

The goal capped off an evenly played game, although each half was lopsided.

The Red team - made up of players from Jefferson City, Fatima, Camdenton, Mexico and Fulton - had the better of play in the first half, holding roughly an 85-15 edge in time of possession. The Red squad also had edges in shots (9-4), shots on goal (5-1) and corner kicks (2-0), but couldn't come up with a score.

"I was sitting there midway through the first half thinking, "I divided the teams up OK, but maybe a little bit more in (the Blue) direction,'" said Miller, the game's organizer.

But the Blue squad - consisting of players from Helias, Southern Boone, School of the Osage, Moberly, Sedalia Smith-Cotton, Hickman and Fulton - turned it around after intermission. Dominating from the start, the Blue held advantages in the half in shots (11-6), shots on goal (7-4) and corners (4-0).

"To begin with, I don't think we connected as well as the Red team," said Lor, who was named the Most Valuable Player for the Blue team. "We just kept working harder. Some of us were out of shape because we haven't played for a while, but as the game went by we got more into the game and felt a lot better. We started calming down and finding passes."

Fatima coach Kirby Keth, who coached the Red team, said the difference in the halves was simple.

"The thing that happened with the Blue team is they got some really nice crosses in the second half," he said. "And that was the thing we couldn't quite do. We had some open looks."

The Blue almost won the game 10 minutes earlier than it did when the Red team's goalkeeper, Hunter McMahon (Camdenton) was called for a foul in the box, leading to a penalty kick by Brett Jackson (Helias). But McMahon, who was named the Red team's MVP, guessed correctly and dove to his right for a big save that kept it scoreless.

But all it did was prolong the drama until Lor could get his game-winner.

"That was a great ball, (Lor) ran onto that thing and put it in the back of the net," Keth said.

Miller said it was nice to have a close game in the event.

"This is the sixth year we've done this and a lot of times these are 9-5 and it's like an old man's basketball game - nobody wants to play defense," he said. "I really think both teams knocked it around a little bit more than what you usually see."

Said Keth: "It was a good game, the teams were really divided up really nicely. It was very competitive."

The event, which is usually staged at Southern Boone High School, was moved to the 179 Soccer Park this year.

"We've been wanting to move it down here for a while and try to build it back up a little bit," Miller said.

The only down side was that, due to a lack of commitments, the normally scheduled girls game was canceled. Some of the players chose to play anyway, as Fulton's Anna Fink and Southern Boone's Molly Schiltz played for the Blue team, while Fatima's Brittany Groner played for the Red team.

Fink was named the winner of the annual Jon Strodtman Award. Every year, proceeds from the event are donated to the American Cancer Society in memory of Strodtman, a longtime coach at Hickman High School who died in 2008.

Miller said he hopes the girls game will return next year.

"We needed more commitments," he said. "We had 13 or 14, but you can't do it with that. When Rock Bridge doesn't send anybody, and Hickman was going to send one, you can't do it.

"June is always hard anyway to get anything together. The first year we did it, we played 11-11, but we had to have one boy play keeper. So we actually had 21 girls but they had to play the whole game, and we shortened the game. After that, we started getting pretty decent numbers. ... I'm glad those three girls were able to stick it out and come out and play and Anna obviously played pretty well."