The Perryville boys soccer team is ready as ever for the postseason. The Pirates will get their chance to make a run starting Oct. 30 in the Class 2, District 1 Tournament.
Perryville (12-7) will take on six seed Saxony Lutheran in the opening round at Affton High School.
Perryville coach Jerry Fulton felt like his team had an outside chance at earning the number one seed in the tournament, but understands his team’s slot as the number three seed. Bayless is the number one seed, while Affton will be number two.
“Bayless and Affton had better records,” Fulton said. “I thought we played a tough schedule, but it is what it is. I thought that was pretty much where we would fall.”
The Pirates and Crusaders were slated to play late in the season, but rain postponed the game and it was never rescheduled. However, the two teams did play eight common opponents with Perryville going 6-2 against those teams, while Saxony went a combined 3-5.
Fulton feels like his team is rounding into form having won four games in a row after a 2-0 senior night victory over Cape Central. The Pirates played St. Francis Borgia (16-5) Wednesday its last regular game.
“We played very well against Cape Central the other night and I think if we can get everyone healthy and at 100 percent we are going to be a handful.”
The Pirates will go into the postseason relatively healthy compared to other points this season. The Pirates were missing just one player against Cape Central and have been getting healthy throughout the latter portion of the season. There were times this year when the Pirates were missing up to five starters at one time.
“One player had a sore ankle and didn’t play Thursday, but other than that we are all healthy as of now,” Fulton said.
Bayless comes into the district tournament at 15-6, and nearly 100 total goals as a team. Elmin Lemes has scored 44 goals himself for the Bronchos. Affton is 17-4 as the number two seed.
“Both Affton and Bayless are winning a lot of games and scoring a lot of goals, but I would think we stack up against anyone we play. I think we have as good a chance as anybody,” Fulton said.
