Vernon Hills’ shutout streak continues at Lakes
The Vernon Hills girls soccer team has reeled off six straight victories, each by shutout.
The latest in that impressive string came Saturday afternoon in Lake Villa, where the Cougars captured the Lakes Tournament Championship with a 1-0 triumph over Richmond-Burton.
“It’s nice to get it, and we’ve been on a roll,” said Vernon Hills coach Vince DeLuca, whose team is 7-2-1. “We wanted to get to the (title game) and see what happens. We got there and felt confident we could play well.
“Richmond-Burton was a good team. We made some adjustments, got the goal and hung on.”
Allison Clatch scored in the 53rd minute off a cross from Courtney Corrado.
“I was running for the ball, but it was Courtney’s excellent cross that set it up.” Clatch said. “We’d been crossing all game and finally got one to go in.”
Vernon Hills won all four of its games in the Lakes tournament, including a 3-0 decision over Antioch on Saturday morning. The Cougars outscored their opponents 9-0 in the tournament. Overall during the streak, they’re outscoring their foes 18-0.
“It’s been a good run, and a lot of credit goes to our defense,” DeLuca said. “Our defense and our midfield (Kathyn Redig and Heidi VanderBloomer) have come up big, too. When they click, then the rest of the team clicks.
“But you’ve got to give credit to the rest of team for the shutouts.”
Vernon Hills keeper Iris Ostrovsky made 1 save against Richmond Burton (5-6-1, 2-2). Ostrovsky has 8 shutouts already with only 3 goals allowed.
“I really don’t want to take the credit. It’s more the defense in front of me,” said Ostrovsky, crediting Brie Bahlman, Alisa Menotti, Alina Lehockey and Corrado. “My communication with all of them really works. They really are the ones that do the hard stuff.
“They are my rock — without them I really don’t know what I would do.”
Vernon Hills’ Julie Pecht scored twice against Antioch, Corrado had a goal and an assist, and Alex Goldstein and Redig each had assists.
The Cougars next host Wauconda (9-2-1) with the North Suburban Prairie Division lead at stake at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Vernon Hills.