Staying aggressive enables Pirates to gain measure of revenge, take third in own tourney

HANNIBAL, Mo. — The Hannibal boys soccer team may not have earned the opportunity to play for a championship in its own tournament, but Kevin Westhoff and the Pirates relished the chance to exact revenge on Rolla — the team that, until Saturday, had handed Hannibal its only loss of the season.

Westhoff’s penalty kick goal with 27:55 remaining in the second half helped the Pirates defeat Rolla 2-1 Saturday at the Veterans Sports Complex and capture third in the Hannibal Tournament.

“Losing to them the first game of the season sucks, but to come back and beat them in our home tournament for third place, it feels good to get that revenge,” Westhoff said.

Pirates senior forward Bodie Rollins drew a foul in the 18-yard box to set up Westhoff’s game-winning goal.

“I’ll have to give props to Bodie Rollins because like 95 percent of my goals are straight from him getting fouled inside the box or a free kick,” Westhoff said.

Pirates coach Eric Hill said an insistence on aggressiveness, especially when both teams are playing their second game of the day and third game in two days, can lead to opportunities that Rollins helped create.

“That’s why we apply that pressure in that area. That’s why we make those runs. That’s why we look for those opportunities,” Hill said. “The more pressure we put on the other team, it increases the chances that they are going to foul you.”

Westhoff, who is playing center back as opposed to midfield this season, scored on a penalty kick in Saturday morning’s semifinal game against Perryville and leads Hannibal with six goals.

“It was nice to see Kevin step up once again,” Hill said. “We moved him to the back to solidify our defense, but right now he’s our leading scorer because of what he’s able to do in the air on set pieces, when he actually takes the set piece himself, and he’s been consistent on PK’s. Right now, he’s our No. 1 guy when we have an opportunity there. He’s been all over the field for us getting it done.”

Senior midfielder Austin Salerno got on the scoresheet a shade less than two minutes into the game to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead after he received a ball on his left wing spot from forward Maddox Tharp.

“We were just swinging the ball and he made a great run,” Hill said. “That’s where it all started. He was making that angled run in to goal. What we talk to our wings about doing is try to get themselves going to goal, not just being an option to cross things in because we want them to be goalscorers for us.”

Hill said Salerno is normally an unselfish player and doesn’t shoot a lot, but he made the most of his crack at goal this time.

“The guys harp on him a lot because he doesn’t pull the trigger on the shot,” Hill said. “Sometimes he waits and waits. He didn’t hesitate at all. He ripped it with his left foot to the far post into the side net. It was nice to see, and hopefully he can get some confidence off of that and build on it.”

Rolla leveled the score at one when Marcello Villasana tightroped the end line and whipped a pass from near the right post to Connor Johnson in front of the goal. Johnson redirected the ball with his right foot past Pirates goalkeeper Clayton Neisen.

“Kudos to Rolla for battling back and getting one before halftime and making us have to get back to work again,” Hill said. “We were trying to defend, we were doing things, but I think the sense of urgency was gone a little bit and we had to pick that back up after halftime and finish it off.”

The Pirates’ response was just what Hill had hoped for.

“One thing we talked about at halftime was this second half is going to determine who the tougher team is,” Hill said. “I thought they gutted it out.”

Both teams also had to adjust to playing on the Veterans Sports Complex’s grass field, which is adjacent to the turf field on which the championship game between Perryville and Columbia Hickman was happening at the same time.

“Normally it wouldn’t be too crazy, but this is some thick grass that we have on this field,” Hill said. “We asked our maintenance guys to mow it short for us this weekend, and they did a great job. It looks really good, it’s just that it’s so much slower than playing on the turf. It just slows the game down. Our connections are off just a little bit because we would normally send a ball and we would expect it in one spot and it’s just not getting there. It was definitely an adjustment.”

The Pirates (6-2) will return to the turf Tuesday when they host North Central Missouri Conference foe Moberly ahead of a trip to Flinn Stadium to take on Quincy High School on Thursday.

“There’s no rest for us,” Hill said. “We’re just going to have to regroup and be ready to go.”