Rollins, Pirates keep right on rolling into postseason with another whitewashing

HANNIBAL, Mo. — Bodie Rollins admitted the Hannibal career assists record had been on his mind in recent games.

“Everybody knows that I’ve been a little selfishly unselfish lately,” Rollins said.

The senior forward entered Thursday’s regular-season finale against Warrenton two assists away from breaking Corey Allensworth’s mark of 65 assists. Rollins tied the record just 49 seconds into the game when he assisted Austin Salerno’s goal. Eight minutes later, Rollins delivered a cross from near the left corner flag into the center of the 18-yard box where Maddox Tharp headed in Rollins’ 66th career assist in the Pirates’ 9-1 victory at the Veterans Sports Complex.

“I took the ball to the corner, saw Maddox making the run, just let him do his thing, and he put it away for me,” Rollins said. “Kudos to him.”

Tharp’s finish epitomized the Pirates’ ability to find the back of the net at a high clip — they are averaging 3.7 goals per game — something Rollins credited for allowing him to reach this milestone.

“I want to say that it means a lot, but it’s assists, and I create them, but my team has to finish them,” Rollins said. “We’ve done amazing at that this year. I’m at 22 (assists) after this game, and that’s 22 goals that we’ve put away. That’s why we’re winning games.”

Now Rollins doesn’t have to worry about the record.

“Now he can go into the postseason and not be thinking about it at all,” Pirates coach Eric Hill said. “Just go out and play and not worry about anything else.”

For good measure, Rollins added two more assists, the final of which came on junior midfielder Pearson Parker’s second goal that put the eight-goal mercy rule into effect in the 77th minute. Rollins also netted his third hat trick of the season with goals in the 32nd, 38th and 74th minutes, giving him 26 goals this season.

“He can definitely create for himself and create for others,” Hill said. “He had some good chances, went to goal and did a nice job of putting them away. That comes with teammates feeding him the ball really well, too. His teammates did a great job of finding him and getting him the ball in a good spot.”

As for which means more — the record or another hat trick — Rollins gave the record a clear edge in that race.

“The record is a big thing,” Rollins said. “I also like scoring goals, but this record does mean a lot to me.”

Pirates goalkeeper Clayton Neisen, who set program single season records for wins and shutouts (13) in Hannibal’s 2-0 win over Marshall on Oct. 19, took joy in watching Rollins’ record-breaking effort.

“He’s a great player. I get to direct everybody including him. I’m glad he gets to set records and get that many assists,” Neisen said.

Neisen got in on the goal-scoring party by converting on a penalty kick to give the Pirates a 6-0 lead in the 39th minute after Rollins drew a foul on Warriors junior defender Caleb Hackmann in the box. This tally gave Neisen his second PK goal this season. He also scored against Fulton on Sept. 26.

“It’s great when we have a big lead like that and Coach gives me the opportunity to take the penalty kick,” Neisen said.

Pirates junior center back Cooper Scott scored the Pirates’ third goal when he headed an inward swinging corner kick from Chase Askey to the top right corner of the net. Scott credited his fellow center back Kevin Westhoff for drawing the attention of an extra Warriors’ defender, leaving Scott with plenty of room to redirect Askey’s set piece.

“Kevin took two guys for me when he made his run, then the ball was coming toward my head. I just closed my eyes, it hit off my head, I opened my eyes, and it was in the net,” Scott said.

While the Pirates’ five-game shutout streak came to an end on Thursday, their mercy rule victory pushed their winning streak to 18 games. Moreover, this win came against a Class 3 District 4 opponent, giving the Pirates a 3-0 record against teams in their district — Hannibal defeated Fort Zumwalt South 2-1 in overtime on Sept. 9 and Lutheran St. Charles 2-0 on Sept. 13 — and a path toward the No. 1 seed in the district.

McCluer (15-2) has the next best record of any other team in the district besides Hannibal (23-2). Warrenton (12-8) and North Point (10-8-1) are the only other Class 3 District 4 teams with winning records.

“Our record speaks for itself,” Hill said. “The teams in our district that we’ve had the opportunity to play, we’ve beaten them. I think it’s a great way to cap off the regular season and get us going into the postseason on a roll.”

The district tournament begins on Nov. 4, meaning Hannibal will have 10 days before their next game. The Pirates will take Friday off then get back to work.

“The way that we’re going to look at it is we’ve got the week to fix some things we need to fix,” Hill said. “There aren’t a lot, but we want to make sure we really understand everybody’s roles when we have free kicks that we need to defend, corners we need to defend, running our set pieces, making sure we have those figured out.”

Hill said his team will do more conditioning than they have had the chance to do during the regular season, of which Scott is not a big fan, but he will do whatever it takes.

“I don’t really like that, but it’s what we have to do to win games,” Scott said.

While Hill admitted there are pros and cons to having so much time before playing another game, he said that time the Pirates have to make minor tweaks and get in postseason shape will give them a leg up.

“We’re going to be in a spot where we’re able to be the most well-conditioned team going into the postseason,” Hill said. “I think with the way we’ve been playing and all other things that we bring to the table, that would be a huge benefit for us.”