Coming off of a two game losing streak, the varisty girls soccer team found redemption last Saturday during a very physical face off against Fort Zumwalt West under the afternoon sun, which was the hottest it had been the whole season.

“It was extremely hot, and it was a new factor for us. After the crazy conditions we’ve had this season, that was the hottest it has been,” junior Lauren Nosal said.

The Jaguars struck first, scoring off of a cross from a corner kick. After 20 minutes of battling for control, senior Jaclyn Zilch scored off of a corner kick, cutting past a defender and shooting the ball into the goal, tying the game as it progressed into the second half.

In the second half, the game continued to heat up, with the Jaguars slipping through the Spartan defense early on and coming out with another goal. For the rest of the game, both teams clashed relentlessly, with neither team backing down despite several injuries in the Spartan lineup.

“The whole entire game was a battle,” senior Lacee Wesloh said. “Their midfielders were pushing down our midfielders, they’d trip them and push them, and people were struggling to get back up.”

The Spartans had several close calls but managed to thwart nearly all of the attacks.

“They had multiple opportunities to score, like one time our goalie was out of the goal, and they had two girls going in on her, but we managed to kick it out,” Wesloh said.

With 10 minutes left of play, freshman Morgan Cerevera, alongside fellow freshman Mikayla Kennedy, maneuvered her way through the Jaguar’s defense and managed to cut around a defender and score.

“I was really nervous, because I didn’t want to miss it because it was wide open. Afterwards, I felt like the girls liked me more, because at the beginning of the game, they weren’t really passing me the ball because I was the little freshman, but once I scored, they trusted me more,” Cerevera said.

Cerevera’s goal sent the game into overtime which resulted in a stalemate where both teams failed to score. This led the game into a second overtime, where the first team to score would walk away with the win. That goal came from senior Jazmin Garcia, who locked in another hard fought victory for the Spartans.

Two days later, the team played again at home, this time against the Hazelwood West Wildcats under very different weather conditions.

“Compared to our game on Saturday, it was freezing; it was snowing; it was windy; it was awful conditions. The turf was also wet, so it made the ball skip more and made it harder to control,” Nosal said.

In the first half, the Wildcats scored off of a foul on the 40 yard line; the shot was taken by the wind and floated in right above goalie sophomore Sydney Chalcraft’s head. For the rest of the game, the Spartans struggled to score, and both teams continued to battle it out.

“Wood had at least two breakaways, a missed post; I had a header go wide, a free kick that just missed. There were so many opportunities to come and win that game, and it was unfortunate that we couldn’t have put one or two more in,” Nosal said.

In the last three minutes of the game, Nosal managed to score off of a corner kick, but the Wildcats immediately retaliated, scoring off of a counter attack giving Hazelwood a 2-1 win over the Spartans.

The Spartans’ next game is away against St. Charles West at 6 p.m.