Alton kickers celebrate tourney championship

Pete Hayes, phayes@thetelegraph.com

 Published 1:09 pm CDT, Monday, August 27, 2018

Photo:

Matthew Kamp | For The Telegraph

Alton’s Joe Morrissey, right, moves in on Edwardsville Tyler Frolick, who makes a diving save in action at the Alton Round-Robin Soccer Tournament at AHS.

GODFREY — After further review, the Alton Redbirds are basking in the glow of winning their own Redbirds Kickoff Classic championship.

Alton, which went 1-0-2 in the tournament, finished with four team points, the same as Gateway Legacy Academy pof Granite City. But the Redbirds defeated Gateway head to head, which is the first tiebreaker used to determine the championship.

After a tie with Edwardsville in the round-robin tournament’s final game, some thoughts were that Gateway had finished as the champion. But a close look at the tournament rules indicated that, in fact, the Redbirds were tournament champioons.

“Originally, some were told that a win was worth three (standings) points,” Alton coach Nick Funk said. “But the rules show two points for a win. We each won two games and that means we tied Gateway Legacy at four points and first tie-break is head-to-head result, so we beat them.”

A tie was worth one standings point.

Edwardsville, which was 1-1-1, finished with three points and Dunlap with one point.

“It’s been a while since Alton has won the tournament and it feels good,” Funk said. “We played well. It’s a good way to start the season.”

The Redbirds tied Dunlap earlier Saturday, 1-1. Also Saturday, Gateway defeated Edwardsville 3-1. On Friday, Alton defeated Gateway and Edwardsville beat Dunlap.

“I think we played well,” Funk said. “To come out of this tournament undefeated with the teams in it is pretty good.”

Friday’s games were played in near-perfect weather, nearly cool by August standards. But after a downpour overnight and early Saturday morning, the turf was soaked and the temperatures hovered in the 90-degree range with heat indexes around 100.

The wet-then-hot weekend took a toll on the teams, Funk said.

“The third game in less than 24 hours for both teams in excruciating heat seemed to takes it toll on the players,” Funk said following Saturday evening’s tie with Edwardsville.

Funk also said he saw some team leaders emerge after the three-game tourney.

“Joe Morrissey is turning into quite the player,” Funk said. “His work rate, stamina, mentality and focus are unrivaled. Our two center backs and center midfielders are also playing exceedingly well. Braden Schrimpf, Sam Stutz, Jake Lombardi and Roman Thomezcek are handling a high workload.”

Funk, whose Redbirds play host to Granite City at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, said sophomore Owen Macias has stepped foward as the frontrunner at goalile.

“(Macias) is our starting keeper as a sophomore and has made several huge saves for us already,” he said. “We are looking really good right now and are super pleased with the results of the tourney. The only team to come out of it unblemished and undefeated.”