(COTTLEVILLE, MO) St. Louis Lions WPSL finished their sophomore campaign in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) this past weekend and their two-victory home finale at Tony Glavin Sports Complex resulted in numerous team benchmarks.
The Lions notched a 6-1 win over Springfield Lady Demize on Saturday at the Cottleville pitch and then recorded an identical 6-1 result over KC Courage Sunday afternoon.
The home sweep resulted in the Lions’ final record of 7-2-1 for 22 points and third place standing in the WPSL Central Region Heartland Conference.
The team this season recorded new benchmarks in wins (seven), points (22), goals (26) and season point differential (+13).
Saturday’s game saw the Lions’ Brittany Steiger start the four-goal, first-half onslaught over Springfield with her goal three minutes deep. Midfielder Marjolen Nekesa added a goal five minutes later that pushed the lead to 2-0.
At the 26-minute mark, defender Lindsay Sands received a feed from Isabel Burke and punched it to the back of the net for the Lions’ 3-0 lead.
Six minutes later, Kaitlyn Sullivan extended the lead to 4-0 via a penalty kick.
In the second half, the Demize notched a goal four minutes in to cut the deficit to three but Lions’ forward Maddie Bauer collected a pair of goals that secured victory. Tallies at the 53 and 58-minue mark pushed the Lions’ lead to 6-1.
St. Louis’ defense continued the lockout and goalie Mary Niehaus claimed her sixth victory of the season in the Lions’ 6-1 duke.
Sunday’s match-up with Kansas City saw the Lions’ claim the 1-0 lead with Hannah Friedrich’s sixth goal of the season with Stacie Meuhling’s assist ten minutes in.
At the 32-minute mark, Hannah Larson recorded her third goal of the season that pushed the score to 2-0.
Nine minutes later, midfielder Sammi Gregory fed a pass to Steiger and the defender extended the Lions’ lead to 3-0 with the goal.
The Courage sliced the differential to two goals early in the second half but the Lions pushed the lead back to three goals at 55:00 with Ellie Moreland’s goal for a 4-1 scoreboard read.
The Lions extended the score to 5-1 at the 68-minute mark with Lindsay Sands’ second goal of the season.
St. Louis put the capper on the season with Maddie Bauer’s team-tying sixth goal of the season with six minutes left in the game.
Niehaus collected her seventh win of the season in the Lions’ 6-1 home finale over the Courage. The netkeeper finished the season with a 1.25 goals against average and 38 saves in ten games.
With their improvements found this season, one should be optimistic that this team should be a frontrunner in next year’s Heartland Conference complexion if not a strong contender to take the top spot overall.
For more information on the team, go to their official website.
Game-day statistical information provided by St. Louis Lions WPSL.
By trade, he is a six-time, regional Emmy Award-winning news videographer/editor for KTVI/KPLR-TV. By hobby, he is a writer for Arch City Media, dating back to February 2014. Emphasis is on featuring and promoting local women's sports, but will cover anything that is not reported by traditional media outlets. Also a contributor to local concert reviews.
