FENTON, Mo. — Alton found a cure for the hiccups Saturday night – and won the CYC/Bob Guelker Tournament championship game at Soccer Park.
Alton spotted Seckman High School an early 1-0 lead, then made a pair of unanswered first-half goals stand up for a 2-1 victory in the championship game of the Sullivan Division of the prestigious tournament.
“All the credit in the world to this group of kids and the heart they continue to show,” Alton coach Nick Funk said. “They played hard the entire game and fought back from an early hiccup again.
“Winning this tournament is really special,” Funk said. “CYC puts on a great tourney every year and always have good competition in it. From the beginning of the season, we wanted to be able to compete at a high level and this tournament offered that to us.”
Saturday night’s hiccup came in the form of a Seckman goal by Caleb Potter in the 13th minute. But that was all the scoring for Seckman.
Logan Clark tied it 1-1 for Alton in the 20th minute from an assist by Skylar Funk. Seven minutes later, the Redbirds took the lead for good.
CJ Nasello converted a penalty kick for Alton in the 27th minute to make it 2-1.
The Redbirds outshot Seckman 19-11 in the title game and had a 9-6 edge in corner kicks.
The Redbirds (11-3) gained a measure of revenge as well as the tournament championship. Earlier in the week, Seckman handed Alton a 2-0 defeat in pool play. Seckman finished first in the pool, while Alton made it into the final four with the wild card as the second-place pool finished with the highest point total.
In that earlier loss to Seckman, Josh Small scored both the Jaguars’ goals. He came into Saturday’s final with seven goals on the season.
Alton’s Levi Davis made sure Small finished the championship game with seven. Davis man-marked Small and kt close tabs on the Seckman senior captain went.
“They tried moving (Small) to left wing and center mid to get away from the man mark,” Funk said. “But Levi continued to shut him down.”
Alton will step back into the Southwestern Conference Tuesday with a 6:45 p.m. showdown with rival Edwardsville, which sits a 11-0-3 overall and 3-0-1 in the SWC.
“We dominated the pace and play of the game and really put Seckman on their heels,” Funk said. “I told them that all I wanted was everything they had for 80 minutes and if I had to carry them off the field after the game, I would.
“They all knew that if we could do that, we would go home champions tonight and that’s exactly what we did.”
Reach Pete Hayes at 463-2500 or Twitter @HayeserPetes
