2019 Bob Durig Mo-Kan Summary

Monday,  March 25th:

1. BV Northwest (1) vs. Notre Dame de Sion (2)at 3:30 in a shootout In the opening round of the Bob Durig Mo-Kan, Sion downs BVNW 2-1 in a shutout (5-4). Sion. On goal. BVNW. Reeder.

2. Saint Thomas Aquinas (3)vs. Lee's Summit North (0) at 5:30 Saints open Mo-Kan with 3-0 James/Terranova shutout of Lee’s Summit North. STA. Carroll. Weinrich. Kemp.

3. Saint James Academy (3)vs. Park Hill South (2) at 7:30 in a shootout The opening round of the Bob Durig Mo-Kan ends with St. James, downing Park Hill 3-2 in a shootout (4-1). PH. Austin. Weissenfluh. SJA. Devine. Pavich.

Tuesday, March 26th

4. Olathe South (0) vs. St. Teresa's (7)at 4:30 St. Teresa’s explodes in the first round of Mo-Kan downing Olathe South 7-0. Farkas 3. Harlan 3. Gibson. Shutout. Franke.

5. BV Northwest (1)vs. Lee's Summit North (0) at 6:30Second round of the Bob Durig Mo-Kan begins with BV Northwest 1-0 shutout of Lee’s Summit North. BVNW. Coble. Shutout. Hadley.

Wednesday, March 27th

6.  Park Hill (3) vs. Olathe South (1) at 3:30 Round 2 of the Bob Durig Mo-Kan Challenge begins today with Park Hill downing Olathe South 3-1. PH. Dorrell. Romos. Mertz. OS. Harris.

7.  Saint Thomas Aquinas (2) vs. Sion (0) at 5:30 Saints are back in the Mo-Kan finals with 2-0 Taylor James shutout of #32 in the country Notre Dame Sion. STA. O’Keefe 2.

8.  St. Teresa's Academy (3) vs. St. James (1) at 7:30 Second round of the Bob Durig Mo-Kan ends with St. Teresa’s downing St. James 3-1. STA. Farkas. 3. SJA. Padich.

Saturday, March 31

9. 7th Place Game: Lee's Summit North (1)vs.Olathe South (0) at 9:00 The Bob Durig Mo-Kan 7th place game goes to LS North in a 1-0 Morgan Glasgow shutout of Olathe South. LSN. Woolfe.

10. Consolation Championship: BV Northwest (1) vs. Park Hill (2) Consolation Champion of the Bob Durig Mo-Kan is Park Hill, 2-1 winner over BV Northwest. PH. Mertz. Dorrell. BVNW. Reeder.

11. 3rd Place: St. James Academy (1)vs. Sion (0) St. James Academy claims 3rd in the Bob Durig Mo-Kan with 1-0 Matthews shutout of Sion. SJA. Kleekamp.

12. Championship: Saint Thomas Aquinas (1)vs. St. Teresa's Academy (0) Saints claim the 2019 Bob Durig Mo-Kan Championship on a 1-0 Taylor James shutout (her 3rd of the tourney) of St. Teresa—Gabi Cox with the game-winner from Kyli Jackson.

Finish:

8th: Olathe South

7th: Lee's Summit North

6th: BV Northwest

5th: Park Hill

4th: Notre Dame de Sion

3rd: St. James Academy

2nd: St. Teresa's Academy

1st: Saint Thomas Aquinas

All-Tournament Team

Grace	Coble	11	F	BV Northwest
Addie	Coppinger	12	D	Teresa's
Gabi	Cox	10	F	Aquinas
Lauren	Fallis	11	D	Teresa's
Lily	Farkas	12	F	Teresa's
Kate	Goza	11	D	Aquinas
Gabby	Grimaldi	12	M	Sion
Reagan	Halliday	9	M	Olathe South
Amada	Hamm	11	M	Aquinas
Kyli	Jackson	12	D	Aquinas
Taylor	James	10	G	Aquinas	Tournament Keeper
Kelly	Kleekamp	12	M	St. James
Paige	Miranda	11	D	St. James
Avery	Mertz	10	M	Park Hill
Grace	O'Keefe	10	F	Aquinas	Tara Peck MVP
Molie	Pias	11	M	Teresa's
Kaylie	Rock	12	F	LS North
Caylee	Thornhill	12	F	St. James
Nina	Trouve	11	D	Sion
Ayana	Weissenfluh	12	D	Park Hill

Bob Durig Mo-Kan 2019 Finals

30 March at STA in the finals vs. St. Teresa's (1-0)

Game 4:

Before the game, Hamms began the write-up "It was a cold blustery day when the Saints girls walked out onto the turf..."

And after the match, he added "even with the difficult conditions that afternoon The Saints rallied and won the day! It was a team effort as they limited their opponent at every turn and fought for every ball. The girls had brought back the Mo-Kan Championship!"

And that would be the first one since 2010! Against the wind, our girls held Teresa's, the current # 16 team in the country, to one shot without a single corner in the half. 

BWhite named Skylee Deladarantaye the "BWhite Player of the Match," and yes our midfield combined so well defensively with our back four today, it is no wonder that we recorded our 3rd shutout of the tourney. Skylee, teamed with Amanda, destroyed so many of the Star's builds.

We do want to recognize our girls who made the All-Tournament Team:  Kyli Jackson, Amanda Hamm, Kate Goza, and Gabi Cox. Sophomore keeper Taylor James was named the Bob Durig Goalie of the Tournament.  And Grace O'Keefe became the first Saint since assistant coach, Amanda Nelson, to be named the Tara Peck MVP of the tournament!

Well, enjoy this for a day or so, but then we need all to gear up for Tuesday and BV Southwest.

Check this out!

We now stand 3-1-0

STATS: First Half

Saints: Shots: 8 (7) Corners: 3 (Muckerman, Cox, Hamm) 

11:18 Cox (Kyli Jackson hits the counter ball out in front of Cox, and off we go with a great shot on a tough angle.)

Stars: Shots: 0 Corners: 0

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 2(2) Corners:1 (Bryson)

Stars: Shots: 1 (0) Corners

Bob Durig Mo-Kan Semi's

27 March 2019 vs. nationally-ranked Sion (2-0)

Game 3:

Wow, we are back in the finals after a long, long dry spell.  And a lot of the reason is the BWhite Player of the Match, Grace O'Keefe.  Besides working her tail off for 80 minutes she scored both a goal early in the first and late in the second half while generating 4 corners.

But we thought, our second half tonight was as good of soccer as we have played around here in a while. Going against the wind we generated a goal, 5 corners and 5 shots on goal out of 6 total shots. (Keep in mind we only got 4 shots off all first half with the wind.) Not too shabby.

And BWhite gave a special shoutout to Taylor James who played so well tonight in goal.  She played smart soccer, knowing how to keep possession even against the wind. She had to short-hop a couple of saves as well.  Her communication with the defense just improves every game.

And somehow Amanda Hamm drug herself out of the coffin and into school and out to the match, playing almost all of the match.  Guts!

Mia put in her first minutes at the 9 this season, and she just had a great second half for us—collecting the ball, sometimes holding it for a few counts, sometimes quickly finding feet, but constantly setting up others for success. She had two nice dummies as well.

We are very proud of the girls. Bring on the Stars, #16 in the country.

We now stand 2-1.

STATS:
First Half
Saints:Shots: 4 (3) Corners: 4 (O'Keefe, Kante, Cox, Kemp)

36:24 O'Keefe (After receiving the pass from Ram, she breaks off a dribbling tour of the top of Sion's final third before burying a shot.)

Storm: Shots: 3 (1) Corners: 2

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 6 (5) Corners: (O'Keefe 3, Bryson, Cox)

1:48 O'Keefe (Trinity finds Grace on a check down)

Storm: Shots: 2 (1) Corners: 0

Bob Durig Mo-Kan begins

25 March in opening round of Mo-Kan vs. Lee’s Summit North (3-0). 

Game: 2

We came out with a lot of energy and before we knew it, we were up 2-0, both goals scored by our center forwards. 

The BWhite Player of the Match, forward Gabby Weinrich, just had a great match. She finished a nice ball for our second goal, and she delivered a fantastic ball to Gabi Cox that set up our third goal. But the runs she is making from the top now and her ability to hold the ball up are improving our attack. 

Senior Veronica Carroll tallied her first varsity goal at Aquinas, as did Gabby Weinrich, as did Trinity Kemp. That's a special night.

We thought the back four were pretty solid all night. Occasionally, we didn’t arrive on time, but Kyli Jackson and Taylor did a very good job of communicating with the defense all night. 

We need to do a better job of defending out of the midfield. Whomever we pair with Hamm needs to partner with her better. That half of the midfield was out of shape too often, frequently late on arrival. 

We have a great opportunity Wednesday as we take on nationally ranked Sion. If we can improve as much as we did between our first game and our second, we will have an opportunity to get back to the finals. 

We have evened our record at 1-1-0.

Stats. 

First Half:  Saints. Shots: 7 (5). Corners. 2 (Muckerman. Bryson). 

28:13. Carroll (O’Keefe hits the through pass that’s deflected by North defender on to Veronica’s foot). 

22:47 Weinrich (Deladarantaye finds Gabby’s foot on the check down into a turn)

NORTH. Shots 6 (2). Corners. 0. 

Second Half:  Saints. Shots. 5 (1). Corners. 3. (Cox. Weinrich. Carroll). 

27:41. Kemp. (Weinrich finds Cox who accelerates to goal hitting it through the keeper to back post). 

NORTH. Shots. 5 (1). Corners. 2. 

Opening Night

21 March at Blue Valley at 7:00 (1-2)

Game 1:

Well, we lost a tough one, considering we fell behind early 2-0, and then we had to fight and claw our way back; we definitely had enough good looks to, at least, get the thing tied.

Coach Hammons always says early season games are won and lost on deadballs and defense.  Tonight we did our best to make him a soothsayer.  We made two defensive mistakes (and they both occurred off their long-throw-in), and then we cashed a 2-man corner to get the thing back to a one-goal game with 17 minutes to go.

As expected the smaller field made the match quite physical. We did think our girls, for the most part, matched Blue Valley's toughness and grit. 

We ended up playing an old-time 4-4-2 for most of the second half, and that formation did allow us to create even more deadballs.  I believe we ended up with 11 corners. We did cash one, but if we go back and take a look, we are going to find out that we should have cashed a few more.

Amanda Hamm and Grace O'Keefe both played 80 minutes and the last 25 or so they were are only center mids.  BWhite gave Grace a shoutout but named Amanda Hamm the BWhite Player of the Match. She did have a special night.



I just think playing together more probably eliminates the type of errors that lead to our giving up the two goals.  We do know that Kyli can't be the only voice in the back. Taylor did a much better job second half talking and communicating with her defense. But it needs to get even better and the rest of the defense needs more talking as well.

We are now off to Mo-Kan after a couple of days off.  I do think we are going to be fine once we find our best lineup and get a clearer take on our best formation based on our personnel.  We need lots more action going to goal.  It seemed adding the second striker increased our ability to create opportunities. We will have to see.

Lee's Summit North is next.

STATS:

Aquinas: Shots: 12 (5) Corners: 11 (Grace 4. Bella 2. Cox. Muckerman. Holton. Kante. Carroll)

Blue Valley: Shots: 14 (9) Corners:4 

First Half:

5:02 Palmer (Jackson called for making contact with her elbow as she shields the ball)

24:40 Palmer (we whiff BV's long throw as Palmer receives to chip the keeper.)

Second Half:

17:00 O'Keefe (Bella lays the ball off on the 2-man corner)

Blue-Gold 2

16 March 2019 in Blue-Gold 2 at Aquinas in 50-degree weather with no snow (0-0).

Well, the Basketball Girls are back, and that definitely gives us a boost.  That being said we are still missing Maggie Ryan, and Kate Goza was keeping stats as she heals up for our first match this coming Thursday—really, this coming Thursday?

With that said, we must get a lot better by Thursday if we want to put a "W" in the result column. We did dominate possession as you would expect, but we were not dangerous at all. We must find a lineup that gives us many more opportunities to score.

On that front, freshman Assa Kante will definitely be one of those ways we can create opportunities. Her long deadballs, her ability to switch the point of attack from wherever she plays, and her ability to come forward from right back—are all dangerous.  

Kyli looked as if she hadn't missed a practice back at centerback.  We need to get her forward on all set pieces as she can be a weapon inside the box. 

And Grace got us into some scoring positions when she was in at the "10." But we have to be more effective in making use of her talents.

But after that, we have lots of work to do in 4 days.  We moved Bella back up front and outside in one of the shifts yesterday, and that was by far our most dangerous shift. So we will have to look at that, but whatever we do we need a far more effective understanding of our attack from our wings. And the "9" position has to become way more dangerous. Right now rarely does the pass out of the "9" put us in a scoring position or in a position where the next pass might lead to a score.

On the JV front, we really like the play of Ella Gregovich and Emily Neilsen in the back. And once again the JV got very good midfield play out of Claire Innes and Gabby Mazzarese.

Here are the game stats (keep in mind we only played 30-minute halves.)

We got off 11 shots (sort of) with only 2 being on goal, none of those requiring a real save. Bella and Grace had 3 shots each, and they were the girls who had shots on frame.

We created only two corners. We did generate 5 STA balls (t's, boxes, D-balls) Cox created two, with Bella, Grace, and Trinity creating one apiece. We loved that screaming diagonal ball Trinity put on the back post to Bella.

We did create some nice throw-in opportunities. Ram and Kutey have pretty good throws, as does Assa.

Deadballs and defense usually win you early matches in the soccer season. We looked pretty decent defensively—our deadballs are on the wrong side of dangerous.

Thursday we will be at Blue Valley.

New Look Blue-Gold

7 March 2019

With all of the basketball players still playing for a 4th straight state title and Grace O'Keefe on the mend, we took a different approach to the Blue-Gold game to make sure we had good competition.

That ended up playing out pretty darn well with the score lending up 0-0 in the matchup between starting varsity and non-starters with some upper-level JV. We did get to move players around a little during the match as well.

The starting varsity did generate 6 corners, with Muckerman creating 3, Carroll 2, and Hamm, 1.  We were not very dangerous on the execution, and 4 of them came during our second 15-minute segment, but it was an encouraging number.

We thought Gabby Mazzeresse, Claire Innes, Ellie Temple had noteworthy games for the opponents of the starting varsity with most of the varsity all having their moments. We, however, have to give a shoutout to Kate Muckerman as she made most of the offense happen. 

STATS:

Varsity took only 9 shots all match, with 5 sort of/kind of on goal--some tricklers. We did generate 6 corners.

Varsity 2 took almost as many shots with Mazzerese getting most of them. They did not create any corners, however.

We will get all of our players back after the break, and we will quickly have to assimilate them as we open with Blue Valley on that Thursday night. 

We will play a second Blue-Gold including them a week from Saturday.