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Bulldog soccer team shutout by Cape Central
SIKESTON - The Sikeston Bulldogs dropped a hard fought match to the visiting Cape Central Tigers 1-0 on Wednesday night at the Sikeston Complex.
Playing its third game in as many nights, Sikeston was solid on defense but did not have many scoring opportunities on the offensive end against the Tigers.
"Hunter Dillender is our center midfielder and he did an excellent job tonight," said Sikeston head coach Derrick Long. "He doesn't get a lot of the praise but he works hard and is one of our best defenders. Hunter shut down any runs Cape had in the middle. Any time you can make Cape play outside then you have done something. We will let them cross all day with the goalie we have (Scott Droddy). I have full faith that Droddy will win it in the air."
Sikeston had a golden opportunity to open up the scoring in the match at 25:
00.
Blake Taylor hustled past the Tiger defense and secured possession of the ball as Allen raced toward Taylor out of the goal. Taylor seemed to get the ball past the goalie only to be slide tackled by Allen.
No penalty was called and the Tigers retained possession of the ball. The run by Taylor was the only major offensive by Sikeston against the Tigers.
"We attacked well when we had our chances to score," said Long. "Blake got taken out in the box which was unfortunate. We did not get a penalty kick and if we did, it could have been a totally different game. Once a player taps the ball past the keeper, he can't take the offensive players legs out and that is exactly what happened. That is the way it goes sometimes."
The Tigers took advantage of several free kicks in the match and finally broke the scoreless tie early in the second half.
At 45:00, Cape Central's Assad Malick placed a corner kick perfectly in front of the goal as a streaking Matt Hester headed the ball into goal past a stunned Droddy.
"The last three of four games we have kind of broken down when other teams get free kicks and that is what they scored on," said Long. "We have got to work on the little things and improve in time for districts. Cape should have never got past our defensive wall on the goal. The guy just slipped behind us. I know that we can fix things like that in practice."
Cape Central (7-6-1) outshot the Bulldogs 18-7 in the match as Tiger keeper Nick Allen recorded the shutout.
The Tigers had seven corner kicks compared to the Bulldogs single tally.
"Cape has a very good team and they are very tough to defeat," said Long. "We are going to go back to practice and fine-tune some of the aspects of the game that we are struggling with. It is not like we are a long way from where we want to be, but sometimes you have to go over the fundamentals to get the guys focused for the district run."
Sikeston (5-11-1) travels to West Plains on Saturday for a match starting at noon.