Oakville High girls’ soccer team enjoys a good week, coach says

By STEPHEN GLOVER

For the Call

The Oakville Senior High School girls’ soccer team competed in four games last week, suffering some disappointing losses and enjoying some good wins.

“All in all, I think it was a good week,”Oakville Head Coach Dave Robben told the Call. “At times we just were not firing on all cylinders.”

The Tigers (4-3) suffered a frustrating 4-1 loss to St. Joseph’s on Monday of last week. Oakville found itself down 1-0 at the half, but brought the score to 2-1 with a goal by junior midfielder Jackie Roepke.

“Jackie essentially knows when to go forward to attack,” Robben said. “The goalkeeper didn’t have a chance. It was an exceptional goal. I thought Jackie had a really good game against St. Joe’s.”

In the final 70 seconds of the game, the Tigers found their hopes of tying up the scored dashed as the Angels cranked out two more goals.

“We were actually in the game with about 70 seconds left to play,” Robben said. “For 79 minutes, it was a good game and we never gave up, which is a credit to our girls.”

Oakville rebounded from its loss the following day with a 2-0 win over University City. The Lions are a much-improved team and Robben was quick to give credit where it was due.

“This was the most competitive Univer-sity City team that I’ve seen at the girls level,” Robben said. “We never could get into any kind of a rhythm, which was largely due to how they defended us.”

Scoring for the Tigers in the first half was junior forward Melanie Meade with junior forward Lisa Pucci receiving the assist.

“Melanie was at the right place at the right time,” Robben said. “She has a good awareness of the game at the flank position.”

Junior forward Cathy Headrick brought the score to 2-0 in the second half of action as Meade assisted on the play.

“Cathy’s been able to stay healthy, knock on wood,” Robben said. “She has a good nose for the goal and is always around the goal.”

The Tigers found themselves on the losing end on Thursday as they dropped a 2-0 decision to Cor Jesu.

Oakville junior goalkeeper Val Vogler was stellar in the goal during the first half as she shut out the Chargers and recorded seven saves. Senior goalkeeper Kelly Thouviner started the second half and was not as lucky as Vogler as she yielded two goals while making six saves.

“Val came up big a couple of times in the first half,” Robben said. “We couldn’t get anything going in terms of our passing game. We had trouble getting the ball up top to the forwards and we certainly were not firing on all cylinders against them.”

The Tigers rounded out play this past Saturday as they played host to Bishop DuBourg at the St. Louis Soccer Park. The Tigers rebounded from their loss with a 3-0 hammering of the Cavaliers.

“We finally played on our home field and it really showed,” Robben said. “The scoring was spread out and everything really came together for us.”

Freshman midfielder Lisa Kraus scored Oakville’s first goal of the game with senior midfielder Callie Fisher assisting on the play.

“Lisa’s really been getting a baptism under fire,” Robben said. “She scored a really nice goal and had the keeper out of position in which she put the ball into the far post.”

Headrick scored the Tigers’ second goal of the game in the early part of the second half with senior midfielder Alison Jones receiving the assist. Junior forward Lisa Pucci finished out the game Oakville’s third goal of the game as senior defender Kerry Westwood recorded the assist.

“Lisa’s been frustrated in not being able to score some goals for us,” Robben said. “It was really a spectacular goal that she makes look so easy.”

The Tigers return to action on Wednesday as they travel to Lindbergh for a 6 p.m. contest with the Flyers. Oakville returns to conference play today — April 10 — as the Tigers travel to Webster Groves for a 7 p.m. match with the Statesmen.

“It looks like Lindbergh’s trying to fill some positions like we are,” Robben said. “In the last couple of years, Webster Groves has been able to keep the scores fairly low on us.”