‘It was definitely insane’: QND’s Jones savors winning national title with SLSG soccer club

QUINCY — A moment Brody Jones referred to as “the coolest thing in soccer I have ever done in my life” still remains a blur in some regards more than a week after it happened.

That’s especially true of the celebration.

The St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club Missouri U17 squad, with Jones starting at center back, won the ECNL Regional League national championship July 19 at Striker Park in Richmond, Va., beating FC Wisconsin in a penalty-kick shootout that went eight rounds and ended with SLSG converting the final attempt.

“It’s kind of a flash from the second we scored until like 20 minutes later,” said Jones, who will be a senior at Quincy Notre Dame. “It all happened in the blink of an eye.”

The only comparable moment he has is winning the Class 1A state championship with the Raiders in 2022 as a sophomore.  

“It was the same thing with the state championship,” Jones said. “You don’t really realize what you did until a few days afterward. With each week, it’s processing more and more.”

It’s becoming more real, too.

“It was definitely insane,” Jones said.

Jones took SLSG’s fourth attempt in the shootout, burying his shot into the left side of the net to tie things at two makes apiece. Both teams converted in rounds five, six and seven before FC Wisconsin’s eighth attempt was saved by SLSG goalkeeper Will Hoffman. 

“It was a real nail-biter,” Jones said.

SLSG midfielder Matt Hurst converted his attempt to win the title and cap an incredible season.

“We knew going into it that we had a really solid team,” Jones said. “We had a team talk in November of last year and (the national championship) was our goal for the whole year. We knew we could do it. We knew when our league games started we would be able to do it. We just kept improving and improving.”

Jones intends to make that happen for the Raiders this fall.

“It definitely brings my confidence up a lot,” he said. “I know I’m going to have to step up more and be a leader more on this team than I was on that team. My main goal is to raise the level of the players I’m playing around. I know I have a good number of guys to do that.”

He also knows his ever-improving game should open doors to play collegiately.

“I’m keeping my options open,” Jones said. “I want to play at the next level for sure. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I was young.”

A national championship should be a springboard to that.

“I’ve always heard if you’re the best player in a group then you’re in the wrong group,” Jones said. “So playing with a bunch of high-level guys brings my level up. I’m excited to see what’s next.”