Kruk sets scoring record as St. Edward claims title
With St. Edward already well on its way to capturing a third straight Green Wave Girls Soccer Invitational title on Saturday at Greg True Field in Elgin, the focus turned to rewriting the record books.
In the Green Wave's fifth and final game of the tournament senior Allison Kruk scored 4 goals in a 5-0 win over Westminster Christian. Kruk's final goal with just under 9 minutes to play was the 63rd of her career, surpassing the all-time school record for boys or girls previously held by Chris Holze, who graduated in 1994.
"It has been like a huge roller coaster ride to achieve this," said Kruk. "But it is a dream come true. There are no words to express how grateful I am to all of my teammates and coaches for helping me. I could not have done this without them."
St. Edward finished the tournament a perfect 5-0, outscoring its opponents by combined 22-0. Earlier on Saturday the Green Wave added wins of 4-0 over Harvest Christian and 3-0 against Streamwood.
Kruk had 6 goals on the day. Alex Zeller added 3 goals and 4 assists, including an assist on Kruk's record-breaking goal. Chelsea Gnan had 2 goals. Monica Ramirez added a goal and an assist.
"It was awesome to see Allison get the record," St. Edward coach Tim Brieger said. "It's a lot of hard work by her, being in the right place at the right time, and she will be the first one to say a lot of unselfish teammates to help set her up and get her the ball. The whole team wanted to be a part of this today. They recognized this was something special and they did every thing they could to get her the ball."
Goalkeeper Paige Dykstra recorded the shutout in all 5 of the Green Wave's wins.
The Green Wave (14-2-0) had a max 50 points in the tournament. A team received 6 points for a win, 3 points for a tie, 1 point for every goal in a game up to 3 goals, and 1 point for a shutout.
"It was a great tournament for us," Brieger said. "We came in with a target on our backs and there were some tough teams here, but we were up to the challenge."
Streamwood finished the tournament in second place with 31 total tournament points. The Sabres went 3-1-1, including a 2-0 win against Larkin early in the day on Saturday and then an exciting 3-2 come from behind win against Genoa-Kingston in their final game.
The Sabres trailed 2-0 against the Cogs before scoring 3 goals in the final 12 minutes to rally for the win. Alondro Blanco scored the game-winner on an assist from Tawny Carroll.
"We've become the comeback kids lately," Streamwood coach Matt Polovin said. "We took a risk and went to four forwards to get more chances. We were able to put a lot of pressure on them. This should be a great confidence booster for our young team."
Carroll scored her 18th goal of the season in the game and also had 2 assists.
"We started out rough," she said. "But then we got after it. It was a great feeling to be able to come back like that. It feels like we took some steps forward in the tournament."
Shonali Pierce had a pair of goals in the Sabres' win over Larkin.
In other action on the day Larkin defeated Harvest Christian 3-0 for its only win of the tournament. Westminster knocked off Larkin 3-0 to finish the tournament 1-3-1. G-K had 2-0 wins over Westminster and Harvest Christian to finish at 3-2.