BELLEVILLE – The Father McGivney Catholic High School girls soccer team finished a good regular season to their standards going 12-7-1. They began postseason play Wednesday night (May 11) against the Roxana Shells. The Griffins were victorious 5-2.
Scoring two goals on the night, both from a couple of delightful direct freekicks, was freshman defender Devin Ellis. Ellis is a Byron, Carlson, Petri and Kalp LLC Female Athlete of the Month for the Griffins.
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It was her first high school post-season game, but she said she wasn’t nervous.
“I just wanted to come in strong so we could advance,” Ellis said. “We beat them twice before and I knew they were going to come out strong, so I just had to prepare and be ready.”
She was ready alright.
She scored the first goal of the game in the 17th minute. She stepped up to the freekick from about 20 yards out and curled it in off her right foot off the post and in. But more was yet to come.
She scored the final goal of the game in the 68th minute when the Griffins were awarded another freekick in a dangerous area. She stepped back up to take and put this one into the top corner. That goal made it 5-2 as the Griffins held on for the win.
“There’s been a bunch of goals that I’ve scored like that,” Ellis said after the win.
She notched nine goals in the regular season and three assists. The freekicks marked her 10th and 11th of the year.
Ellis couldn’t be happier being able to do all this as a freshman.
“It’s pretty cool. Because the next day at school it gets announced and it just feels cool because I’m a freshman and getting recognized.”
Ellis and her team will take on the No. 1-seeded Althoff Catholic High School Crusaders on Friday (May 13) at 6 p.m. at ACHS.
Ellis said she is looking forward to playing against a couple of friends that whom she plays club soccer.
“I’ve looked at their stats and they seem really good,” concluded Ellis.
It should be a good game between the two Catholic schools.
