St. Charles E. blows out Belvidere
St. Charles East had trouble finding the back of the net for the first nine minutes of Monday’s St. Charles East tournament opener against Belvidere.
The Saints certainly didn’t have any difficulties soon after that.
Andrew Shone led the way with three first-half goals and six other Saints scored in a lopsided 9-0 victory.
St. Charles East (8-2) has now won three straight in dominating fashion, blasting Elgin, Larkin and now Belvidere, by a combined score of 23-3.
“It took us a little time to get going coming out of the rain delay,” Shone said. “Once we settled into our groove we were able to carry out our game plan pretty well.”
T.C. Hull got things started for the Saints when he put them ahead with 30:43 on the opening half clock. His score seemingly opened up the floodgates for the hosts.
“We showed we can score with anybody on the field which is good to know,” Shone said. “We work hard as a team and trust our teammates and we know when someone gets in front of the goal they’re going to finish the ball.”
Shone didn’t need to get involved in the scoring action until the Saints had pretty much blown the game wide open.
Kevin Kurtz scored 80 seconds after Hull to make it a 2-0 contest and Taylor Ortiz and Brad Corirossi followed with scores to make it 4-0 with 13:50 left before halftime.
Shone tallied his first two goals with 7:47 and 2:38 remaining in the first half.
“I like to get guys in the game and I like to use my squad that way,” Saints coach Paul Jennison said. “The more guys that get in, the more it shows how well you and your teammates played. Lately we’ve gotten everyone in the game and goals have been coming from around the team so the guys are buying into things and have a sense of confidence.”
Belvidere (2-9-2) never could stop the bleeding, surrendering a goal on a header from sophomore Zach Manibog with 2:16 on the clock and 24 seconds later, a third and final goal from Shone. Most of the shortened 17:30 second half was played in a heavy downpour.
“Bottom line, it’s always nice to open up a (tournament) with a win,” Jennison said. “Obviously, as far as I’m concerned these were perfect conditions, but it was a horrible night (weather-wise) but the guys responded and found the back of the net like they needed to.”