Perryville girls soccer coach Jerry Fulton is happy for his team that they will experience the Class 2 Final Four for the first time in the 23-year history of the program.
However, don’t get it twisted, the Pirates are going into the game to win. Perryville (19-2-1) will take on Orchard Farm (19-5) at 2:30 p.m. at the Wide World Soccer Complex in Fenton on Friday.
“I think that if you are going into the final four to get third or fourth place, you are going into it for the wrong reasons,” Fulton said. “We are going into the game with the attitude that we will play our best game and wherever that lands us, we will be happy with. Hopefully, that’s first place, though.”
Fulton has taken the boys program to the Final Four on three separate occasions, most recently this past fall when the boys took second, falling to Whitfield 4-2 in the championship game. Fulton believed that nerves played a part in boys’ run at state, most notably when they fell behind 3-0 at halftime to Excelsior Springs before winning in dramatic fashion.
Fulton hopes that the girls team doesn’t have a game as dramatic as that one, but noted that he does expect jitters to play a part, especially early in the contest.
“I’m sure the girls will get caught up in the hoopla of it all, I mean, who wouldn’t?” Fulton said. “I’m hoping that once they get on the field and start playing that we can treat it just like any other game. The first team to do that will probably win.”
Orchard Farm is led by Emma Long who has 36 goals and 17 assists (both team highs), while Hannah Ramsey is second on the team with nine goals and nine assists.
“[Long] is certainly someone that we will have to keep an eye on at all times,” Fulton said. “They will probably try to get her the ball as much as they can. The good thing is that we have faced a team like that this year.”
Perryville defeated Fredericktown 2-0 in the Class 2, District 1 title game and the Blackcats were led by Alivia Buxton who led the area with 66 goals. The Mississippi State University commit did not score on Perryville in 195 minutes of game action this year.
Fulton noted the reason behind the success not only against Buxton, but the whole season is what makes his team special.
“Everybody is on the same page,” Fulton said. “The girls saw the boys team have success and they want to follow in those same footsteps. They are very excited at the opportunity to bring home that state championship.”
While the boys did it as much with their offensive output (more than 130 goals) as with their defensive effort, the girls squad has had to lean more heavily on the defensive side.
Perryville scored more than 100 goals last spring in route to a Class 2 quarterfinal appearance. While scoring nearly 80 goals this season. The Pirates lost Leah Buerck, who scored a school record 45 goals, to graduation, but has gone one step further in 2022.
“We have different kinds of players this year,” Futon said. “We had to come at this a different way this season. Against DeBourg we had four goals, by four different players. I think that bodes better for us than having one girls that needs to do everything for us to win. We gave up a few more goals last year than we did this year as well.”
Perryville has given up 11 goals total this year and hat starts with Anna Gremaud, and the rest of the back line and goalkeeper Brooklyn Moll.
“We have leaned on our defense heavily this year,” Fulton said. “It’s all five of those girls and the keeper working together. Anna has been huge as a senior leader.”
Perryville has outscored opponents 19-1 this postseason enter the semifinals on a seven game winning streak. For this reason, Fulton and his squad are excited to get going and want to play right away.
“I wish we could play right now and didn’t have to wait,” he
