Last night, the girls’ soccer team suffered a tough loss to Troy Buchanan High School. The Bruins started the game with a fierce intensity and at the 26th minute of the first half, senior Haleigh Fancher scored the first goal, placing RBHS in the lead. The Bruins maintained this lead for almost the entirety of the game.
“We scored fairly early on in the beginning of the game,” senior Breta Phillips said. “Our first half was solid but we let down significantly in the second half.”

It was looking like RBHS had a sure win, but the Bruins were starting to lose that intensity they began the game with. But this was enough for Troy to sneak in a goal with four seconds left in the second half, tossing the game into over time.
After the first overtime and then a second one, the teams were still tied, so they headed to penalty kicks. Troy started the round with the first PK, that senior Madison Boyken saves. Senior Laurie Frew started for RBHS, making a PK, and after a conversion from Troy, junior Sydney Griggs also converted, placing RBHS in the lead at 2-1. Troy, ties the score with another conversion, and the 2-2 tie maintains after the RBHS kick goes wide, missing the goal. Troy scores on their fourth attempt, while RBHS misses, pulling the score to 3-2 in Troy’s favor. After a long, exhausting haul, the Bruins fell to Troy in the PKs.
Phillips believes it all comes back to the team’s intensity.
“We had really good intensity in the overtimes,” Phillips said. “Hopefully we can get better at maintaining our intensity in the second half.
Despite the loss on the field last night, the Bruins didn’t let this affect their game this morning against Pembroke High School from Saint Louis, Mo. Within the first five minutes of the game, junior Katie Cook scored a goal, placing RBHS in the lead. Cook scored again in the minute 18, followed closely by Frew scoring four minutes later. Freshman Molly Gunter scored again, putting the score at 4-0 in RBHS’ favor by halftime. In the second half, after a goal by Griggs and a PK by Phillips, RBHS defeated Pembroke Hill 6-0.
“It was a good game for us,” Phillips said. “Soccer is a game that fluctuates in the intensity with which teams play, but we kept a consistent amount of energy throughout the entire game, which is a big deal. Hopefully we can build off of that intensity and keep it going for the remainder of the season.”
By Trisha Chaudhary