Spoofhound soccer plays in jamboree

JON DYKSTRA/DAILY FORUM
Maryville forward Thomas Distefano dribbles against Bishop LeBlond during Saturday’s soccer jamboree in St. Joseph.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — For the core of the Maryville High School soccer team, the season got kicked off in a very familiar place.

After Thomas Distefano, Patrick Baker, Lucas Jasinski and Jaden Hayes all played for the St. Joseph club team in the offseason, they returned to Bishop LeBlond’s Eagle Stadium with their Spoofhound teammates for the jamboree.

“I think that helped immensely,” Jasinski said. “We faced really good competition over there and we got what we needed to get out of it. We really were able to work on all of our skills, not only foot skills, but strength and endurance.”

The day started off in tremendous fashion for the Spoofhounds with wins over Lafayette, 2-0, and Savannah, 2-0.

“I am pleased,” first-year head coach Dale Reuter said. “I’m pleased with where we are at.

“Each game we started off a little slow … once we settled down we were able to trust each other and move the ball well to open up a lot of scoring opportunities and capitalize off of those.”

Maryville lost its final match of the day 4-0 against LeBlond.

“We had a little bit of a breakdown near the end, but LeBlond is a very good team,” Reuter said. “They are a very patient, very disciplined team with a lot of skills to go along with that … it gives a good judge of where we need to go from here.”

For the players who played for the St. Joseph Storm the jamboree offered a fun opportunity to play against some former teammates.

“We played with five or six players from LeBlond, a player from Savannah and some players from Central,” Baker said. “So we bonded with them and they have made us that much better.”

Overall, Reuter was pleased with the performance Maryville put forward during the jamboree.

“It is a jamboree, it is early in the season and it’s a 20-minute game instead of an 80-minute game,” Reuter said. “We have some stuff to work on, but that is why we do these things.”

UP NEXT

The soccer team will open the season on Friday at Savannah and they play their first tournament next Tuesday at Barstow.

“I know the whole team is really, really excited to get the season going,” Baker said.