Vianney's Jonny Roeckle (10) and Lindbergh's Brandon Miller go up for a head ball. (Paul Kopsky/STLtoday Prep Sports)

Vianney won the battle, but lost the war.

The Golden Griffins beat Lindbergh, 2-1, in the final match of pool play Wednesday evening at the 53rd Annual CYC/Bob Guelker Soccer Tournament at the Anheuser Busch Soccer Center in Fenton. The Griffins went through pool play unbeaten, 2-0-1, but the Flyers advance to the semifinals because they earned more points.

The tournament awards four points per win, one point for a tie, and two points for a shutout. Because Lindbergh beat Parkway Central, 2-0, Tuesday, the Flyers had 10 team points to Vianney’s nine.

"That’s how the point system is set up," Vianney head coach Dave Gauvain said. "They’ve got two wins a loss, and we have two wins and a tie, but they got two points for a shutout."

The win did allow Vianney (5-3-2) to exact some revenge from a 2-1 loss to Lindbergh Sept. 10.

"We needed to bounce back," Gauvain said. "We lost to them a week or so ago. It was good for our guys, and our character, to bounce back and win the game."

It didn’t take the Griffins long to get on the board.

Vianney had three shots in the first two minutes, as Lindbergh was unable to clear the ball out of its own zone. The persistent pressure paid off in the fifth minute when Kenny Young found the back of the net.

"It was huge to score in the first five minutes," Gauvain said. "That was huge. One of our goals for tonight was to score early, and put some pressure on them. The first game, we had some chances to score early, but we didn’t put those chances away."

The one-goal advantage would remain until halftime as both teams went into an offensive lull. As the game grew more physical, play got further away from the goals. Vianney’s John Howe had to leave the game midway through the first half with a split lip after a head-to-head run-in with Lindbergh’s Jeremy Bozdek. Bozdek was a bit shaken up on the play, but would remain in the game. Howe left at halftime to get stitches.

The physical defensive stalemate continued into the second half. The teams played most of the second half in the middle of the field. Lindbergh’s Joe Rothermel was finally able to put a shot through about 20 minutes in, but his shot went wide left.

Shortly after that, a yellow card was drawn on Vianney’s Tony Pancer. He and Brandon Miller were pulling at each other, but when Miller yanked Pancer’s jersey, Pancer shoved him to the ground. The jersey pull gave Vianney a free kick, however, but Lindbergh’s senior keeper, Chris Eason, pulled John Roeckle’s kick out of the air.

Seconds later, a yellow card on Vianney’s Chris Garavaglia gave Lindbergh a free kick. Austin Killian’s shot was blocked.

The Griffins moved the ball to the other end and had another great scoring opportunity. A flurry of passes set up three shots from inside the keeper’s box. Eason was up to task to maintain the one-goal margin.

A save from Vianney goalie, Mike Flatley, in the 70th minute got both teams fired up. Flatley stopped a shot from his knees, then crawled to cover up the ball before Miller could get to it.

Vianney would respond quickly at the other end when Steve McAnany found a wide-open Roeckle on the right side for an easy insurance goal from inside the box. It was a goal the Griffins would need.

Following the kickoff, Lindbergh (8-2-1) drove the ball deep into Vianney territory. The Griffin defenders would knock the ball out of bounds, giving the Flyers a corner kick. A header was deflected by Vianney, but Bozdek was there to clean it up and shoot the ball to the left corner.

"I don’t know what took us so long to wake up," Luczak said. "Part of that is Vianney. They were knocking the ball around and making us work. We weren’t ready for the pressure they were giving us early on. We finally woke up in the second half, but it was too little, too late."

Gauvain said the final 10 minutes of the game were intense as both teams found more offensive opportunities than they had in the previous 60 minutes.

"Things just opened up," Gauvain said. "We were trying to play more possession and keep possession of the ball, but their intensity level had risen."

While Lindbergh and Vianney were going after each other, St. Dominic jumped out to a 2-0 lead and beat Rockwood Summit, 3-1.

Summit (5-5-1) got a goal from Tyler Easley to bring the Falcons to within a goal, but St. Dominic was able to put it away.

"We started the game really flat," Summit coach Chris Kappler said. "We can make excuses, but we just didn’t come out and play hard. It doesn’t take talent to hustle, and we didn’t even do that. We got what we deserved and, hopefully the kids learn a lesson from it."

Neither team advanced to Friday’s semifinals as Chaminade moves on from Division B to play the Division C pool winner, CBC at 6 p.m. Lindbergh gets SLUH in the 8 p.m. match.