<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2zwWCc_0wEhW09R00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2zwWCc_0wEhW09R00" width="2048" height="1152" ></figure>MARYLAND HEIGHTS – St. Dominic senior Chase Morgan understood the challenge of playing in the inaugural STL Champions League tournament as soon as the event was announced.“We knew it was going to be a grind. We just had to stay strong, stay composed and take it game-by-game,” Morgan said.That grind culminated with St. Dominic hoisting the STL Champions League trophy and Morgan receiving the ‘Virtuoso Award’ after a thrilling 2-0 victory over De Smet Saturday in front of a massive crowd at Creve Coeur Soccer Complex. St. Dominic (17-2) won its first 11 games of the season before losing 1-0 to De Smet on Sept. 30. The Crusaders converted the lessons learned from that loss into action on Saturday.“We knew they were going to be physical, so we needed to keep our heads and match their physicality,” senior Charlie Lafata said.In the eighth minute, St. Dominic senior Johnny Petruso won a contested header in the midfield and flicked it forward, where senior Conor Meyers entered a footrace with De Smet senior Anthony Young to the top of the 18-yard box. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, both players slid for the ball, but Meyers’ foot made contact first and popped the ball goalward.“We were running after it, and I got a foot on it,” Meyers said. “I got up off the ground, looked up and saw it in the back of the net. I just went nuts. So much adrenaline. It was awesome. Scoring the first ever Champions League goal in the final is something special.”De Smet (14-4-1) rarely experienced the feeling of being scored on first this season. To make matters dicier for the Spartans, St. Dominic had a habit of opening the floodgates after scoring a goal.The Crusaders scored four goals in the final 25 minutes to break open a tight game in a 7-2 victory over Ladue on Monday. In the Champions League semifinal on Wednesday, a scoreless first half ballooned into a 6-0 victory over CBC after the Crusaders lit the scoreboard first.“I told them before the game, that if you look at some of these scores, that’s not us,” De Smet coach Josh Klein said. “There’s too much fight in this team, and they’re never going to go down lightly.”The Spartans experienced the opposite of a collapse, elevating their game to generate a slew of scoring chances in the following minutes. Twice, senior Jack Saladin stood within inches of a loose ball before St. Dominic sophomore goalie Luke Pashia slid to corral it.In the final minutes of the first half, Lafata, Petruso and the St. Dominic forwards engaged in a series of give-and-go’s that tilted the field back into the Crusaders’ favor.A cross from Lafata found the head of senior Evan Schmitt and required a diving save from De Smet senior goalie Jackson Keyes. Less than a minute later, a blast by Lucas Sottille was deflected wide by a diving Keyes.“It took a lot of hard work and movement to keep it away from (De Smet). They marked up pretty well and they were all over the place. We just had to play our game and stay calm on the ball,” Lafata said.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1CJpCe_0wEhW09R00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1CJpCe_0wEhW09R00" width="1920" height="1279" ><figcaption>A battle for glory: De Smet senior Brady Smith (5) and St. Dominic senior Johnny Petruso jostle for a loose ball in front of a massive crowd during the STL Champions League championship match on Friday, Oct. 19, 2024 at Creve Coeur Soccer Complex in Maryland Heights, MO | Photo by Ben Vessa</figcaption></figure>De Smet appeared to tie the game in the 65th minute when senior Landon Weber accepted a pass from Saladin and blasted a shot that hit the underside of the crossbar and careened straight down onto the goal line, but never crossed it.“I feel so bad for Landon Weber. It was right there on the goal line, but that’s the game of soccer,” Klein said.De Smet continued to make a frantic push for the equalizer, including three corner kicks in the final three minutes. Strong tackles by Nick Martinez and Chase Meyer, a sliding block by Petruso, a save by Pashia and a final clear by Morgan kept the Spartans off the scoreboard.“As the game got on, we were all kind of fatigued. We didn’t really need to score so we just had to drop in, stay composed, clear the ball out and we’d be fine,” Morgan said.Morgan’s final clear sent Petruso and senior Gavin Kleeschulte away in transition with few Spartans on that half of the field to stop them. Kleeschulte’s blast with 1.6 seconds remaining sent the Crusaders into a frenzied celebration and gave coach Greg Koeller a sigh a relief.“De Smet threw everything at us in the second half. We adjusted a little bit to ride it out and we don’t normally do that. It was nice to see us get that last goal, even though it took us until the last second. We worked hard, we grinded it out,” Koeller said.And the St. Louis Champions League tournament, with its display of high intensity and high-level skill, culminated in a championship game worthy of its inaugural event.“From the very beginning, this is what the coaches envisioned. You saw the electricity from the crowd, the great competition, these guys just loved it. I think it filled a niche that the high school game needed and it’s only going to get better from here,” Koeller said. Meyers added, “We feel honored to be able to this. We hope the young’uns can keep the legacy going and get a two-peat.”<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2U8pX2_0wEhW09R00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2U8pX2_0wEhW09R00" width="1920" height="1279" ><figcaption>Historical hoist: St. Dominic seniors Conor Meyers (left) and Ryan Keyes accept the trophy for St. Dominic as the inaugural winners of the STL Champions League on Friday, Oct. 19, 2024 at Creve Coeur Soccer Complex in Maryland Heights, MO | Photo by Ben Vessa</figcaption></figure>For a gallery of photos from this event and other STL Champions League games, visit https://benvessa.smugmug.com/Boys-Soccer/Boys-Soccer-2024. </div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

St. Dominic captures inaugural STL Champions League title with hard-fought win over De Smet

MARYLAND HEIGHTS – St. Dominic senior Chase Morgan understood the challenge of playing in the inaugural STL Champions League tournament as soon as the event was announced. “We knew it was going to be a grind. We just had to stay strong, stay composed and take it game-by-game,” Morgan said.