The Eagles soccer team might not initially have been getting a lot of respect from area coaches, but, ummm…pay attention coaches – after winning the Hannibal Tournament for the sixth straight year, the Eagles are now 7-0.

The Eagles soccer team, above, left, led by goalie Hugh Keene, won the Hannibal Tournament this past weekend to move their record to 7-0.

The Eagles soccer team, above, left, led by goalie Hugh Keene, won the Hannibal Tournament this past weekend to move their record to 7-0.

The unbeaten streak includes last Tuesday’s 4-3 win over MMA, which was a 4-1 game before the Colonels stuck in two goals in the final two minutes.

“We didn’t expect to win this at all,” said Eagles coach Chris Miller, after the Eagles defeated Fulton 9-0, Hannibal 2-1 in overtime and Saxony Lutheran 2-0 in the championship match.

One takeaway from the Hannibal championship: Miller said when SoBoCo struggled on Saturday, “we just found a way to get results.”

When Miller proclaims one of his team is capable of “finding a way to win,” other coaches should be considering them higher than a fourth seed in any tournament.

SoBoCo has yet to trail in a game this year and after they bombed Fulton by a 9-0 score, they led Hannibal 1-0 until the host school got the equalizer with a bout 15 minutes left.

“We were not playing well on Saturday and it seemed everything was a struggle,” Miller said.

So the Eagles changed things up. Miller changed the team’s formation which brought midfielders forward in an aggressive attack that paid off at the 7:20 mark of the first OT when midfielder Jamison Randle got the winning score.

In the championship game, the Eagles handled a solid Maplewood team with goals by Rece Gilmore and Ian McCluskey in the second half for the win.

~ Find out more in today’s Journal ~