Oakville's O'Brien Shines in Soccer All-Star Game

Billy Donovan scored 11 goals for Chaminade during his senior season.

The forward, who is headed for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, scored an incredible five goals in the 2011 UMB Bank Senior All-Star soccer game, which was hosted by the Missouri Athletic Club and played at the Anheuser-Busch Center in Fenton on Thursday night.

"It was a good night," Donovan said.

It was indeed, as Donovan scored the game's first two goals and the last two goals as he led his North team to an 8-2 victory. He actually could have realistically scored at least two or three more.

"It was fun being on the field one last time as a high school player and the ball just was fed to be in perfect spots all night long," Donovan said. "I should have scored those goals."

John O'Brien (Oakville) scored in the first half for the South team while Zach Pudlowski (St. Mary's) scored in the second half. Pudlowski's goal came in the first five minutes of the second half to cut the North lead to 4-2. But it was all North and Donovan the rest of the way.

O'Brien was named the Most Valuable Player of the South team.

"We are all competitors and you certainly don't want to lose a game 8-2," O'Brien said. "But it still felt great to get a goal and get named the MVP. The game was all that I expected and more."

Donovan's first two goals came within 30 seconds of each other, both on assists from Carson Pryor (MICDS).

"I actually should have had two goals before those two," Donovan said. "I could have scored more tonight but five was enough."

Five was the most that Donovan has scored on any level in his soccer career.

"The most I had in high school this year was two in a game, and I think I had three in a game at some point," Donovan said.

The forward had plenty of help from his teammates, including Reggie Thedford. The forward from Hazelwood Central had the prettiest goal of the game to give the North a 3-0 first half lead.

"I knew he was going to play the ball over the defender's head and I just wanted to make sure I got a foot on it and put it on goal," Thedford said.

Thedford also added a beautiful assist on one of Donovan's goals and also made one of the best defensive plays of the game as he stopped an almost sure South goal as he guarded the far post.

"It was coming right at me and I was fortunate to get in front of it," said Thedford, who moves on to play at Elmhurst College.

Sean Hogan (Duchesne) and Matthew Clarkin (CBC) scored the other North goals.

The North team was coached by Whitfield's Bill Daues, and included Donovan's former Chaminade teammates Eric Heet, Alex Zuerlein and Alex Wilson.

Tomas Gomez (Webster Groves) was named the area's Goalkeeper of the Year while Joe Witzig (Lindbergh) received a $1,000 scholarship in ceremonies between the boys and girls game.