Angels Soccer Wins Three in St. Louis Classic Over the Weekend

St. Joseph's Academy senior Lauren Flynn had never been on a team which had lost two games in a row.

That was the situation the Angels found themselves in coming into the St. Louis Classic. The Angels lost to Visitation 4-2 on April 7 and then fell to Duchesne 2-1 on April 13.

"That was the hardest thing ever," Flynn said of the back-to-back losses. "I was like in shock for 48 hours."

The last time that St. Joseph's had lost two games in a row was in the 2007 season when the Angels fell to St. Teresa's and Ursuline by identical 1-0 scores.

Flynn and the Angels responded well from the recent two losses with three victories in the St. Louis Classic over the weekend at the Anheuser-Busch Center.

The Angels defeated Alton 6-0 Friday night as Abbey Stock scored three goals. They followed with two wins Saturday, defeating Parkway South 3-1 and Lafayette 3-0 in blustery cold conditions.

"I do not like cold weather," Flynn said. "But I love soccer and this was huge for the team. We are not used to losing but we had some hard practices and came out and played well in the tournament. We are still growing as a team and we needed a couple of wins like these."

Flynn scored the tying goal after Parkway South had taken a 1-0 lead in the Saturday morning game. Stock scored the game-winner and Haley Kavanaugh added an insurance goal.

The final game against the Lancers, who also entered the game unbeaten with wins over Shawneee Mission East (1-0) and Blue Valley Northwest (2-1), was scoreless through a half.

Flynn scored in the first couple of minutes of the second half and followed with another goal midway through the half. Tori Magaletta added the third goal for the Angels.

"Hopefully this gets us back on track," Angels coach Maureen McVey said. "We took a couple of losses but those things are going to happen. It is better to happen early than later. But the girls stayed positive. We lost 11 seniors and had to replace some quality kids this year. The girls listened well and they got the desired results in this tournament. There is still a lot of hard work to do."

The loss for the Lancers stopped a six-game winning streak. They had not allowed a goal in five consecutive games prior to giving up the goal in the game Saturday morning.

"We got to play a couple of out-of-town teams which is good," Lafayette coach Tim Walters said. "And it was a good weekend for us. We had a couple of tough games prior to this one (the finale against the Angels) and I think we wore down a bit. They deserved to win although I  still look at the weekend as a positive."