Big Win at Moberly

There's no such thing as a boring Fulton-Moberly soccer match and Thursday's night match was no exception.  With the teams in the first and second spots in the conference, a victory for Moberly would clinch the conference title, while Fulton was aiming for a share of the conference title.  Bringing even more drama to the match, both teams were without key starters.  Moberly was missing four starters due to citizenship violations, while Fulton was slightly better off with the loss of Nick Heimericks (injury) and Chad Davis (card accumulation).

Moberly drew first blood on a penalty kick late in the first half.  But the Hornets handled it well, putting together a response 3 minutes later.  After a battle in the midfield that resulted in a throw-in for Fulton, Jakob Hull was able to pick out a run from Zach Thomas, who calmly slotted the ball past the onrushing keeper, to make it 1-1.

In the second half, the Hornets applied the offensive pressure and generated several excellent chances for the go-ahead goal with Thomas, Ben Kucera, and Hull all with golden opportunities to be the hero.  The breakthrough came with in 67th minute when Jake Pierce rose up to head a cross from Thomas.  Pierce's looping header beat the keeper to the far post to give the Hornets a deserved 2-1 lead.

The Hornets were seemingly headed to a massive victory and were content to drop players back into the midfield to kill the clock.  However, to Moberly's credit, they continued to fight to the final whistle.  With 19 seconds (19 freaking seconds!) remaining, Moberly scored off a header to force overtime.  After two scoreless overtime periods - in which the Spartans had the better chances - the teams went into the dreaded shootout.

In the shootout, all five of each team's initial shooters made their kicks, which meant that it was a sudden death situation.  Moberly's 6th shooter made his, which meant that Brian McCarty had to equalize, which he did with authority, rattling the back post with his shot.  In the 7th round, Sam Mayne came up with a massive save when he dove and steered the shot past the left post.  Ben Kucera then stepped up for Fulton with the chance to win it.  He coolly made his shot to the jubilation of the Hornet players and fans.

The victory moved Fulton to 9-1 in conference.  Fulton travels to Boonville on Saturday for a 5:00 match.  (JV starts at 5, varsity to follow.)