St. Louis Lions defeat Colorado 2-1, remain unbeaten in 2008

Colin Pennington
colin.pennington@brightonusa.com

St. Louis. Mo. (June 9, 2008) – The St. Louis Lions defeated the Colorado Rapids U-23 2-1 on Sunday night at the Tony Glavin Soccer Complex, improving their team record to 4-0-1 and 3-0-0 at home.

Despite St. Louis resting most of its starters in preparation for Tuesday’s opening round match in the U.S. Open Cup and Colorado having just played less than 24 hours earlier both sides had plenty of chances in the first half. The biggest chance came late in the half when St. Louis forward Kyle Patterson was able to stop his dribble just inside the box and blast a shot on goal that was saved by a diving Joe Willis in goal for Colorado.

“I thought their keeper (Willis) did a fantastic job of keeping them in the game,” said Lions head coach Tony Glavin. “There were two or three bids in the first half I though were sure goals for us that he was able to make great saves on.”

St. Louis made four substitutions at halftime that seemed to pay off when one of those subs, Juice Holmes, setup midfielder Olly Dyson for the Lions first goal in the 70th minute.

“The subs I made were the ones I planned to make from the beginning,” said Glavin. “I wanted to keep the guys as fresh as I could going into Tuesday’s Open Cup match but at the same time didn’t want to take away from the importance of tonight’s match.”

The Lions struck again just 11 minutes later when Holmes and forward Tommy Heinemann had a two on one break that beat the last Colorado defender giving Heinemann his fourth goal of the season and the Lions a 2-0 lead in the 81st minute.

Zach Prince gave Colorado their only tally of the match late in stoppage time of the second half but the whistle blew shortly after giving St. Louis the 2-1 victory.

“I have to give Colorado a lot of credit for the physical condition they were in,” said Glavin. “Playing two matches in 24 hours is not an easy thing to do but never once did they look tired.”

With the victory, St. Louis remains unbeaten on the season and will take a break from divisional play to face the Minnesota Thunder of USL-1 on Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m. in Blaine , Minn.

The next home match for St. Louis will be June 28 when the Lions host the Thunder Bay Chill in the first of a pair of weekend matches at 5:00 p.m. at the Tony Glavin Soccer Complex.

For tickets and more information about the St. Louis Lions visit www.stllions.com

Photo By Charlie Mueller: Jarius ‘Juice’ Holmes (right) recorded an assist on both Lions goals Sunday.