A Week To Remember

By Scott Tittrington

SCOTT TITTRINGTON/The Smithville Herald
Smithville High sophomore midfielder Jessie Johnson, left, closes in on a St. Pius X defender during a game Monday, May 5, at Smithville. The home team won the battle of the Warriors by a 1-0 score.

The Smithville High girls soccer team already knows its postseason destination as the top seed in the Class 1, District 13 tournament. It also knows it will enter that stage of the game as the Midland Empire Conference champs for the fourth straight time.

That doesn’t mean a game Monday, May 5, against St. Pius X didn’t matter.

Don’t tell that to the four Smithville seniors who helped provide a foundation for the Warriors’ ongoing run of success, and were recognized for their contributions during halftime of the Senior Night affair.

After a ceremony of tears, flowers and words from the heart, the senior quartet got one last gift when the final whistle blew on a 1-0 victory.

“Oh, awesome,” said senior defender Kelsy Tietjens. “We’ve never beaten Pius before, so to end on that note is more than anything we could have asked for.

“It’s kind of surreal. I don’t think it will hit me until I get home tonight. This has been like a family for four years now. It’s kind of hard to break away.”

Fortunately for Tietjens, fellow defender Casi McCall, center midfielder Jordan Johnson and outside midfielder Karissa Fales, the family will be together at least until Monday, May 12, when Smithville faces Stover in the district opener.

In their final tune-up on their home turf — the Warriors (16-4) traveled to Pembroke Hill on Tuesday, May 6, for their regular-season closer — they weren’t exactly overpowering. Freshman Erin Robinson notched the lone non-zero on the scoreboard, putting Smithville up 1-0 with 30 minutes elapsed in the first half off a feed from junior Mallory Craig.

“Mallory made a great pass. Erin had a great first touch and got it past the goalie,” said Smithville coach Jon Reed. “The rest of the game was pretty sloppy.”

That’s the pessimistic way to look at it. Moments later, Reed employed a different approach, shifting his thoughts to a back line that now has three straight perfect performances to its credit, piggybacking the Pius shutout on top of a Thursday, May 1 whitewash of Notre Dame de Sion that was finally resolved on penalty kicks, and a 10-0 blanking of Excelsior Springs one night later.

“Give our defense credit. That’s a good team,” said Reed about the visiting band of Warriors.

“We didn’t play our best game today. I think the key is, when you’re off, to find a way to win. We were able to play a real physical game and keep them out of the box.”

The dominance on that half of the pitch hasn’t escaped the players’ notice, either.

“We’ve been working as a team. The defense has been flowing,” Tietjens said. “We’ve been talking. It’s like one happy family back there.

“If there’s any time to show our strength, this is it.”

Sports editor Scott Tittrington can be reached at 389-6632 or at scotttittrington@npgco.com.