For the first time since 1997, the Pirates are boys’ soccer district champions.

Pattonville’s varsity team (11-7) defeated Hazelwood West (15-4-1) in the Class 4 District 4 final on Wednesday, Oct. 26. It’s the first time in 19 years that the boys’ soccer team has won a district championship and they advance to play in a state sectional game on Tuesday, Nov. 1, against CBC.

“It felt good,” coach Mr. Marcus Christian said. “The fun part of it all is that boys soccer is not really what Pattonville is known for. The past couple of years, the program has been building in a way that we’re becoming less and less of a fun team to play against. As far as the state predictions and rankings go, we should have been blown out in that game and obviously that didn’t happen. It’s a testament of how hard the boys have worked, especially last year and this season. We left that game thinking that we were the better team on that field.”

Senior Jeremy Fechtman scored the Pirates only goal with about 3 minutes to go in the second half. He scored off a corner kick and he headed the ball in.

“It was a great feeling,” Fechtman said, recalling scoring the goal. “Right before the corner, I looked at the clock and knew if I scored that the game would be over and that’s what happened. And we definitely are going to have to play our best on Tuesday to impress the other team.”

The boys will play in a state sectional game against the CBC Cadets (20-6-2) on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at Pattonville at 6 p.m.

Christian feels like it could be anyone’s game.

“Soccer is a funny sport,” Christian said. “A lesser team can come up against a juggernaut and come out with a win. It’s a funky sport. You keep the ball out of your net and you build up momentum and then the team that thought they had it is thinking ‘Oh crap’ and the team that thought they were overmatched realizes this is a game of soccer. The key is to build confidence early in the game, try to get after the other team and let them know this isn’t a walk-on.”