Boylan blanks Larkin
Without an outdoor practice to prepare for the season, Larkin girls soccer coach Ken Hall would have liked to ease into the 2013 campaign.
The veteran Royals’ coach didn’t have that luxury. Playing state powerhouse Rockford Boylan to open the season, the results for the Royals were predictable.
Scoring 5 goals during the first 20 minutes of the game, Boylan cruised to an 9-0 win over the Royals in an opening round game of the Huntley Invitational Thursday afternoon.
“We have only five kids back from last year and we are opening the season against one of the top programs in the state,” said Hall. “We certainly could have used some outdoor workouts with such a young inexperienced team. We played scared in the first half and were ragged. We were overwhelmed. The effort was much better in the second half.”
Abby Reed started the scoring barrage for the Titans with an unassisted goal with only 3 minutes, 13 seconds elapsed in the game. A minute later Alena Eitenmiller scored off a perfectly executed pass from Reed to give Boylan a 2-0 advantage.
Reed, Eitenmiller, Emma Krahmer and Keely Walter added first-half goals as the Titans held a commanding 6-0 advantage at halftime.
“This is the first time during the time I have been at Boylan that our first game was the first time we were outside,” said Boylan coach Mark Couper, in his 22nd year as Titans’ coach. “We had a lot of penned up energy and came out aggressive. I liked the way we started the game. We were able to build up our fitness level during the indoor workouts and we played with great energy. It was a good effort to start the season.”
In the second half, Reed, Sydney Wright and Sadey Jumapao added goals for the Titans. Reed ended the game with 3 goals and an assist while Eitenmiller tallied 2 goals for the Titans.
With Boylan putting 18 shots on goal, Larkin junior goalie Alejandra Villagomez was able to register 7 saves.
Larkin’s only shot of the game came on a direct kick by Gabriela Soomayor with 53 seconds left in the game. Soomayor blasted a shot on goal, but Boylan backup goalie Amanda Black was able to make the save.