If there was one word that Perryville Pirate boys soccer coach Jerry Fulton used over and over again, it was resilience. The team competed in the St. Louis Showcase from Thursday-Saturday. The boys went 2-1 during the event and it didn’t exactly start the way Fulton and his squad wanted.
Perryville lost 4-0 in the first game on Thursday to Lawrence, a Class 6 team in Kansas.
“We had some chances to score and didn’t finish well,” Fulton said. “We left there on Thursday thinking about ‘what just happened?’”
The team rebounded well the next two games and defeated Timberland (A class 4 team in Missouri) 3-1, and Fort Zumwalt South (Class 3 team in Missouri) 3-0 on Saturday.
“We left the showcase feeling pretty darn good about where we are and how we came back.” Fulton said. “They could have easily just said that this was just a showcase and come back and not give a darn after a pretty devastating loss on Thursday.”
Fulton was pleased with how his team played overall.
“I feel like taking two of three games from class 3 and 4 schools, we should do well in Class 2” Fulton said. “I thought we played our game for a majority of the time Friday and Saturday. I thought we controlled the contests from the opening kick to the end. The unselfishness of the guys was just something to see. They made sure the ball got where it needed to be. It was just like, wow.”
Perryville will have a very experienced team this upcoming fall with a total of 10 seniors, which is likely the most the program has had at one time, according to Fulton.
“The other thing you go up there to those showcases for is to see what you have to work on,” Fulton said. “This is the first time any of these guys have been together as a group this summer. We adjusted some things after that loss and had some people in a different spot. Everything we switched seemed to work.”
Fulton praised the team’s creativity as well, especially on a goal during a set piece against Fort Zumwalt.
“The team thinks about what they are doing and pulls off stuff that high school players would be able to pull off, but they do,” Fulton said. “We talk about being creative in the final third of the field. The time to take people on and see what you can do.”
Fulton said the team will continue to work hard when regular season practice begins Aug. 7.
“You don’t get the opportunity to work on everything at these showcases,” he said. “Now we know what we have to work on.”
