20/20 Vision

2 Teams Make the Women’s Top 20
By Roger Cole
Publisher

The tallies are in and so are we. Two St. Louis area high school teams make the Adidas National Soccer Coaches Association of America top 20 national ranking. Class 2A State champions, and last years runner up, Fort Zumwalt West came in at number 11 with a season record 20-7-2. Coach Kristy Bush’s Jaguars broke into the rankings at number 11 by knocking off nationally ranked Incarnate Word Academy.

State runner up, Incarnate Word Academy, finished 16th (24-2-2). Coach Jack Baldwin’s Red Knights began their climb in slot 18 and quickly jumped into the top 10 [8] with their spotless 7-0 record in week 2. They continued their ascent racking up 8 more clean slates landing them as high as #6 before hitting a weekend hic-up in late April.

Nerix Hall also broke into the rankings in week 4 at #10 (18-1-0) and managed to peek at # 7 before disappearing in the final poll. The Markers finished the season with a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Tim Walters Lafayette Lancers in PKs. This loss ended Coach Brian Haddock’s teams
run at the state title.

The three teams that made the list throughout the season include (week[rank]): Nerix Hall (4[10],5[7],6[10]), Incarnate Word Academy (1[18],2[8],3[6],4[18T],5[13],F[16]) , Fort Zumwalt West (F[11])

Throughout the season St. Louis area teams dominated the Region 5 top 10 (week[rank]). They include class 1A state Champs St. Dominic (19-5-4) F[9] , Incarnate Word Academy 1[3],2[2],3[2],4[4],5[3],F[3] , Fort Zumwalt West F[2] , Nerix Hall 2[6]3[5]4[2],5[2], Lafayette 5[5], Duchesne 2[8],3[8],4[7T], St. Joseph's Academy 1[8].