SMITHVILLE, Mo. — The goals won’t come so easy again, whether Platte County’s season lasts one more game or deep into the playoffs.Five different players scored, including four goals for senior midfielder Teryn Scott, in a 10-0 thrashing of St. Joseph Lafayette in the Class 3 District 16 opener Monday, May 18 at Smithville High School. Bailey Bologna’s second goal, off of the second assist from a corner kick for Brooke Zenner, invoked the 10-goal rule in the 64th minute and sent the Pirates back to another district final.
Scott entered with only three goals on the season but contributed nearly half the offense in Platte County’s fourth 10-goal win of the season.
“I’ve been waiting outside all year,” Scott said. “I just call for the ball and get the ball (and send in crosses). I guess today was just my day.”
Platte County (12-10-1) deliberately worked the ball around, often feeding passes out wide before peppering the Fighting Irish’s defense with an array of crosses.
Rather than plow straight forward, the offense shared the ball, and center backs Amanda Sullivan and Brittany Alvarado — a sophomore and freshman, respectively — started many of the attacks with pinpoint distribution. Platte County freshman goalkeeper Faith Burtchell touched the ball exactly once and didn’t face a shot, while the Pirates forced Lafayette goalkeeper Atleigh Hale to make 13 saves in addition to beating her 10 times.
“It’s great to see them working together,” Platte County coach Ashlyn Brantley said. “We always want to keep the ball as much as possible, and it starts in the back. To keep it moving and keep possession of it helps us build that attack. It starts with them and just moves on up and having that support from them gives us depth to play and helps the whole team.
“In games like this, you see that girls just want to head straight for that goal, but we want to use this time to play how we would play against any team.”
The challenge ramps up quickly for the championship game, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20 at Smithville High School, after the two entrants scored a combined 24 goals against opponents with a total of three wins between them. Smithville advanced back to the title game with a 14-0 thrashing of St. Joseph Benton — all the scoring in one half.
Platte County last reached the playoffs in 2010, advancing to the Class 2 semifinals. The Pirates have lost in a district final to the Smithville each of the past four seasons, and they haven’t beaten the Warriors since the 2010 regular season.
Smithville won this year’s regular season matchup 3-1 on April 17.
“Smithville is definitely a different type of team. They have a lot of high caliber players,” said Zenner, a junior forward who leads the Pirates in scoring but mostly served as facilitator in the win against Lafayette. “We’re just going to have to switch up our focus and prepare for those tough games we’ve had with Kearney and Smithville before.
“It’s always been a rivalry with them so we just have to stay focused and believe that we are a team that can beat them.”
Platte County tuned up by posting five goals in the first 14 minutes against Lafayette (1-18).
After freshman forward Kenzie Polley opened the scoring in the third minute, Scott completed a hat trick in a span of just nine minutes. Her first came in the fifth minute on her third shot, just moments after she clattered an attempt off the crossbar.
The next two came off crosses from sophomore midfielder Calle Boe in back-to-back minutes, the hat trick completed off of a header from 8 yards out on the far post. Boe finished with two assists and also set up another in the seventh minute with a shot that Hale punched away before falling straight to Bologna, who buried the rebound for her first.
“I think as a team, we just played really well today,” Scott said. “We just kept passing the ball to different people. It was nice to see.”
The five-goal lead then lasted for 15 minutes before sophomore midfielder Katana Audas pounced on a pair of miscues for back-to-back goals, sending the Pirates into the break up 7-0.
Scott finished her scoring in the 47th minute with another header, also at the far post off of a Zenner corner kick. Hanna Hall became the fifth player to score six minutes later, blasting home a rocket from 20 yards out just moments after she rattled the frame with a shot that came back off the crossbar.
Platte County missed on a series of chances before Bologna chested home Zenner’s deep corner kick at the back post to end the game with 16 minutes left in regulation.