After 17 years and two days, the postseason drought has ended for the Warrenton boys’ soccer team.

Before the Warriors’ 1-0 win over host and No. 4 seed Fort Zumwalt East in the Class 3 District 4 quarterfinal Monday, the program’s last postseason win was a 2-1 victory over Hannibal on Halloween 2009.

The gravity of having such an albatross lifted wasn’t lost on Warrenton Coach Jake Brown or his players.

For senior Rylee McGee, the accomplishment nearly two decades in the making has taken shape over the past year, thanks to the work of every player and coach in the program. 

“This is a very big accomplishment; we’ve come a very long way in just this last year,” McGee said. “We had all these underclassmen come in with a whole new mindset and it really has changed the game for us.”

Appropriately enough, as Brown put it, a change in mindset over just the past couple of weeks from one player made all the difference in the historic win.

In the game’s sixth minute, junior Ian Young cleaned up the rebound of a shot by senior Tyler Scruggs as he slotted it into the Lions’ net for the game’s only goal.

“We’ve been talking about really crashing in hard and taking advantage of our opportunities,” Brown said. “Just a couple of weeks back, he’d have been circling around the top of the box instead of following that ball in. He’s very coachable, so I was very proud of him to take that and implement what we’ve been working on.”

Young said after the game that he really wasn’t clear on much more than the basics of the play – the ball was there and he went and got it, just like he has been coached.

“Honestly, I don’t remember, it all happened so fast,” Young said. “Everything got bottled up, Tyler took the shot and their keeper made a great save. I just followed through and ended up getting the trash goal.” 

While Warrenton (12-7) got its trash goal and will now move on to play top-seeded St. Dominic at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday at Fort Zumwalt South, Fort Zumwalt East wasn’t so lucky.

That’s because McGee and the Warriors’ defense stonewalled the opposition.

McGee made a couple of point-blank saves in the opening minutes to keep East off the scoreboard and followed that up by backing the solid defensive play in front of him by making every needed save.

“Every guy on this team played hard, we came out hard and played hard the whole way,” McGee said. “This is an unreal feeling (backstopping the shutout).”

While McGee was complimentary of his teammates, Brown said that the win was something his keeper has worked for years to earn.

“Ever since his sophomore year when he came from Southern Boone, Rylee has come such a long way,” Brown said. “He’s been a starter since his junior year and is a captain this year. We’ve worked to keep him on an even keel and his leadership has been second to none this year.”

As far as playing the top seed goes, Brown said that he’ll take his chances, as long as the Warriors play the team game he knows the team can.

“We focus on keeping teams out of the middle and forcing them out wide,” said Brown of the team’s play, as it has been all season. “If we keep our structure, don’t dive in and try to play hero ball, I think we can play with anybody.”