Fulton Takes Down Kirksville, 6-0

It was a good night for Fulton as they traveled to Kirksville on Thursday night.  Kirksville was behind the proverbial 8-ball from the outset as they were without the services of their team leader, Jan Fanning, due to a red card in their previous match.  (His consolation was that he was carded - his second yellow - for taking off his jersey in celebration of scoring the game-winning goal against Mexico.)  On the Fulton side of the ledger, Jake Pierce had a career night with a hat trick with Trevor Neal adding a brace and Zach Thomas adding a sixth to make it a fairly miserable night for the Tigers.

The Hornets opened the scoring early. In the 2nd minute, Pierce took advantage of a loose ball in the Kirksville defense and drove through the box before spinning and firing a low shot past the keeper.

Seven minutes later, Zach Thomas doubled the lead off a corner kick from Chad Davis.  A well-taken kick to the back post found Thomas well-defended, but he was able to beat his marker to the ball and head it into goal.

The score would remain 2-0 for a while, but the crisp ball movement would break the scoring open with Fulton scoring three times in a span of five minutes.  The first would come in the 28th minute when Jakob Hull put Pierce in alone on the Kirksville defense.  Pierce calmly finished past the onrushing keeper.

Forty seconds later, Fulton struck again.  Davis was found alone on the right off a restart by Morgan Milligan.  A couple of touches and a good ball to the danger area between the 6 and 12 put the Kirksville keeper in a difficult situation.  He came out well, but a challenge from Pierce kept him from punching the ball clear.  Trevor Neal was the first to react and poked the loose ball into the open net.

Fast forward four minutes and Kirksville was picking the ball out of their net again.  This time Milligan put his  free kick from midfield to the top of Kirksville penalty.  The defender accidently headed it toward his own goal.  Pierce reacted quickly and touched it over the charging keeper and tapped it into the empty net for the hat trick.

Trailing 5-0 going into the second half, Kirksville could have crumbled, but did well find its shape defensively, giving up only one goal in the second stanza.  The Hornets scored in the 51st minute on a good switch from Davis' right back position.  The defender failed to decisively clear the ball and a grateful Neal took full advantage.  Neal steamed to goal and megged the hapless keeper.

Fulton would continue to press, but good goal-keeping and the kindly intervention of every keeper's best friend (the woodwork) kept the score at 6-0.  On the defensive end, Fulton played very well with Sam Mayne picking up the shutout.

In the junior varsity game, it was a tale of two halves.  Kirksville opened up a 2-0 lead before goals by freshman Cody Baumgartner and junior Kelsey Nunley tied it at 2-2.  Baumgartner got on the end of a long punt by sophomore keeper Daniel Lair to tap it past the keeper.  Nunley used his speed to get around Kirksville's right back and drive to the near post.  His right-footed blast surprised the keeper, who was unable to keep it from slipping through his hands and into the goal.  Unfortunately, Fulton than gave up a third goal to allow the Tigers to take a 3-2 lead into halftime.

In the second half, the Tigers used their speed to put three more goals on the board.  While not the showing one hoped for, the Hornets moved the ball well.  In addition, freshman keeper Jerod Strough produced a superb save on a penalty kick.