By STEPHEN GLOVER

For the Call

The Oakville Senior High School girls’ soccer team recently competed in four games in a five-day period.

The Tigers competed in the 14th annual Catholic Youth Council Tournament last week at the St. Louis Soccer Park.

Oakville (13-4, 5-0 Suburban South) opened up the tournament against an up and coming Althoff squad that ended up winning the consolation bracket of the tournament. The score of the game was knotted 0-0 in the first half of play until Oakville junior forward Lisa Pucci got the Tigers on the scoreboard with a 1-0 lead.

“The whole game we played well but didn’t get into a real rhythm,” Oakville Head Coach Dave Robben told the Call. “Althoff has been an up and coming team the last couple of seasons. We anticipated pretty much what we saw. We created chances in the first half but just didn’t finish.”

The Tigers received a goal from junior forward Cathy Headrick in the second half of action along with a second goal by Pu-cci which put the final nail into the Althoff coffin.

Oakville found itself facing an old Suburban South foe during the second round of action as they took on the Eureka Wildcats. It was Pucci who got the Tigers on the board in the first half of play with Headrick scoring late in the first half to bring the score to 2-1 at halftime. But Eureka came back in the second half to tie the game 2-2 and force an overtime.

“Eureka gave us a strong game,” Robben said. “The second half was when we hit the wall and really went flat. We came out on fire though in overtime.”

Pucci scored the game winning goal for the Tigers to give Oakville a 3-2 overtime win and a trip to the semifinal.

In the tournament semifinal, the Tigers faced a talented Gibault (Ill.) squad who was shorthanded due to the school’s senior prom.

“They’re another promising Illinois team,” Robben said. “They had most of their upperclassmen at the senior prom, but nevertheless, they gave us a good game.”

Oakville received goals from Pucci and Headrick along with senior midfielder Megan Brockman and freshman defender Hillary Scott in a 4-0 thumping of Gibault.

The Tigers 11-game winning streak was put on the line as they faced Nerinx Hall in the championship game of the CYC tournament. Oakville found itself down 2-0 at halftime and needed to get on the scoreboard in some fashion if they wanted to have a fighting chance against the Markers.

“It was a typical end to end Oakville and Nerinx Hall kind of game,” Robben said. “They’re ranked number one and they played that way.” But our girls didn’t quit and they didn’t blink when down 2-0. Everyone on our team played with a lot of poise.”

Oakville brought the game to 2-1 with just 14 minutes left in the game on a goal by Headrick. The Tigers never found the equalizer goal against the Markers and suffered a 2-1 setback.

“Everyone on our team played with a lot of poise,” Robben said. “Our girls didn’t quit and they didn’t blink when down 2-0.”

The Tigers return to action today — May 8 — as they play host to Parkway South at Oakville Senior High in a Suburban South Conference match. The “senior night” game will be the final home match for the Oakville class of 2003.

“This is always a special night for the seniors,” Robben explained. “In our conference though, everyone comes out to play us.”

The Parkway South match is marked for a 7 p.m. starting time.