‘I’m going to keep shooting’: Raiders shake off early tough breaks to rout Southern Boone

HANNIBAL, Mo. — The Quincy Notre Dame girls soccer team played its best half of the season on Friday in the eyes of coach Mark Thomas.

The Raiders scored six goals in the opening 40 minutes and defeated Southern Boone 7-2 in their first game of the Lady Pirate Invitational at the Veterans Sports Complex.

Those six goals could have been eight, as junior forward Makayla Patton hit the crossbar with a shot less than two minutes into the game, and six minutes later, junior midfielder Sage Stratton watched her attempt at goal strike the post.

“That’s happened to us a lot this year,” Thomas said.

The Raiders refused to be discouraged by it.

“We had those shots, and I was like, ‘I’m not going to let this happen again,’” Stratton said. “I’m going to keep shooting.”

Patton broke the ice by heading in a Lilly Schuette corner kick in the 10th minute, then the floodgates opened. Stratton scored from 25 yards out in the 19th minute and scored again on a penalty kick 27 seconds later.

Patton netted her second goal in the 21st minute, giving the Raiders a 4-0 lead and three goals in a span of two minutes, 19 seconds.

“We’ve had a hard time scoring at times, so to get on the board and be relentless was huge,” Thomas said. “We created a lot of opportunities, good finishing, good passes. We played some good, creative soccer.”

With the clock ticking with less than 15 seconds remaining in the first half, Patton found herself in space just on the offensive side of midfield. She fired a shot with her left foot, and it sailed into the top left corner of the net to extend the Raiders’ lead to six.

“I knew there wasn’t a lot of time left and wasn’t sure how it was going to play out, but I looked up and just took the shot,” Patton said.

Said Thomas, “That’s just being a smart player, putting it in the mix. We talk about that, taking advantage of those opportunities.”

Patton assisted on the seventh Raiders goal, finding sophomore Addie Flesch on her run to the net with 12:10 left.

The Raiders (5-4) will play two games on Saturday, beginning with an 11 a.m. tilt with St. Charles (Mo.) West, followed by a 2 p.m. game against Perryville (Mo.).