Prom Cuts Into Lineup for St. Joe Angels

The St. Joe Angel’s soccer team is on the road in Kansas City this weekend. Last night, the Angels played St. James Academy and today, they face Blue Valley Northwest, the No. 1 ranked team in Kansas.

But the Angels were not playing with a full compliment of players. Prom was last night, so the seniors were excused from the trip.

Thursday, some of the young players came through and St. Joe beat rival Visitation Academy 5-2 on their home field.

Sophomore Kaley Nieters played a whale of a game. She scored two goals, one on a header in the second half. Junior Haley Kavanaugh scored a first half goal and assisted on two others.

What they were most proud of was the way they defended. They marked Viz’ high scoring forward junior Jade Klump like she was wearing a green blanket. Klump, who leads Viz with 9 goals, 20 point was kept far from St. Joe Keeper Kelsey Ponder and was blanked in the game.

Viz got two goals from sophomore Liz Hopkins, one assisted by her sister, Katherine, a junior. The second goal was meaningless, coming in the last five seconds of the game.

Kavanaugh was thrilled to get the win. “The beat us last year, it was a 4-2 game,” she remembered vividly.

Kavanaugh handed credit to their keeper Kelsey Ponder who usually backs up Melissa Powers.

“Kelsey did a really good job of coming off the line. She played a great game,” said Kavanaugh.

“We did a good job of marking Klump. I think that made a lot of difference,” said Nieters.

“I’m glad we won this. We’ve had a good week,” said coach Maureen McVey. It was another hot day and she liberally substituted to keep fresh players in the game.

Nieter’s goal in the second half was very important. It opened a 4-2 lead, moments after Hopkins scored and cut into St. Joe’s 3-1 lead.

Nieter’s goal was artistic. Alli Magaletta had a free kick midway through the second half. She lifted a shot over the Viz wall set to defend the play. Goal keeper Grace Forthaus got her mitts on the ball, but it came loose. Nieters was on the doorstep and headed it in on the left side of the keeper.

“That felt good. I’m glad I got that one in,” said Nieters.

Senior Claire Champion and junior Aly Trost netted the other two St. Joe goals.

St. Joe improved its record to 5-4-0, while Viz fell to 5-4-0.