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With a 1-0 victory over St. Vincent of Perryville at Soccer Park, the Greyhounds (14-10-1) captured the Class 2 state championship for the second time in three seasons. And they did it after starting the season with losses in their first six matches.

"We play a tough schedule and we also ran into some injuries that cost us some games early in the season,'' senior Anna McAndrew said. "But all through the season, we knew that something like this was possible. I'm sure others doubted us, but the key is that we never doubted ourselves."

McAndrew, a senior who'll run cross country and track at Washington University in 51����, scored Saturday's lone goal less than four minutes into the championship match.

Sophomore Grace Bower made a strong run down the right side before playing the ball across for McAndrew. Her shot deflected off the crossbar and into the net.

"Grace and I have been connecting pretty well lately and we teamed up again today,'' McAndrew said. "We got a little lucky with the bounce off the crossbar, but we'll take it."

The goal came on the Greyhounds' second good early chance. About a minute into the title match, Bower, who led the Clayton attack with 12 goals, received a pass from Lucia Melander in the slot, but St. Vincent goalkeeper Allie Patrick came strong off her line to shut down the threat.

St. Vincent's best first-half chance came midway through the half on a free kick Clayton goalkeeper Marin Hoette punched out and then quickly raced to gather in the rebound.

"With this group, we knew that defense was key,'' Hoette said. "The girls in front of me did a great job and I made sure I was ready whenever they needed me."

One of Clayton's key defenders was senior sweeper Annabelle Kujawa. She got emotional at the end of Saturday's game, recalling the Greyhounds' title victory two years ago.

"I was limited to 20 minutes in that game due to heat exhaustion,'' she said. "We know how important defense is — we write it on the white board all the time — and we knew it would be our key today. And once we got that goal early, we knew we had to do everything in our power to make it hold up."

In six postseason wins, Clayton outscored opponents 14-1 and posted five shutouts.

"As the season progressed, our forwards and midfielders came to trust us in the back, knowing that we had things locked down,'' Kujawa said.

"Defensively, we did what we've been doing throughout the last few weeks of the season,'' Clayton coach Brendan Taylor said. "A big part of that is due to our schedule. We're used to playing tough games and having to grind things out.

"Even at 0-6, I knew there was a path to get here. That path got pretty narrow at times, but because of what we went through two years ago, our juniors and seniors led the way and the girls never stopped believing. We forgot about the record, we got healthy and we focused on playing our game and making sure we were getting better."

While St. Vincent (21-4) had good stretches of possession soccer in the second half, it was Clayton that created the best scoring chance of the period. With about 5 minutes to play, McAndrew had a quality shot tipped over the bar by Patrick.

Clayton's defense was keyed around slowing St. Vincent's Lana Adams, who finished her junior season with 53 goals and 25 assists. St. Vincent is a team used to success at state, having won Class 1 titles in 2009, 2017 and 2018 while finishing as runner-up in 2011 and 2019.

The state soccer championship is the second of this school year for the Greyhounds, who also captured the boys' Class 2 title last November at Lindenwood University.

"There's so much joy right now,'' Taylor said. "After yesterday (when Clayton battled through 110 minutes of scoreless soccer before beating Pleasant Hill in penalties), we came in today looking to possess the ball more and hopefully make them chase. That worked to a point and defensively we did what we needed to do. Everybody stepped up and we got it done."