St. Charles East strikes fast, beats St. Edward

From the most calamitous St. Edward start possible, St. Charles East took the lead in Saturday's contest at Concordia University.

What's interesting about the Saints goal after 16 seconds is that it didn't lead to a flood of goals. The Saints did win the contest 8-0, but in the immediate aftermath of Sophie Jendrzejczyk's goal from a Darcy Cunningham pass, the Green Wave stabilized.

"It's a tremendous confidence boost," St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. "We went in with a game plan to get better. If we put the goals away, that's obviously a massive plus for us. But again, we're trying to work on the solid fundamentals and that team play."

Eventually St. Charles East (4-0) got its own passing game working, and with players flying up the wings, the midfielders gaining possession and distributing forward, chances were created in abundance, and six different Saints players found the back of the net. Of the two-goal scorers, sophomore Hannah Kolb also had two assists.

"It was nice coming out and scoring right away," Kolb said. "That helped our confidence and that was good. We kept pressuring and doing really well."

That opening goal came from St. Edward's kickoff. The Saints stole the ball, quickly worked to Cunningham, who fed Jendrzejczyk, who finished a lightning quick move.

"That was tough and it set the tone," St. Edward coach Tim Brieger said. "You see one of those early and you go 'oh gosh, here we go.' But we held our own and I told the girls that they played fine after that first boneheaded mistake by four different player."

With St. Edward (2-2) limited to just one shot on target in the contest, the bulk of creation fell to the Saints. By halftime, the lead was 4-0. Jendrzejczyk's goal was followed by tallies by Megan O'Neal, Kaitlyn Dziubinski and Kolb.

"They are an outstanding side and the were clicking on all cylinders," Brieger said. "We've been playing St. Charles East for four years, and I told (Jennison) that his is the best I've seen them in all four years."

More important that those goals was the manner of their creation. One of the best "team goals" the Saints scored came 90 seconds into the second half when Clare Rasmussen and Julie Herbrand combined before Herbrand sent the ball to freshman Chantel Carranza, who scored the first of her two goals in the contest.

Rasmussen put the Saints ahead 6-0 when she had a shot saved by St. Edward keeper Paige Dykstra. The rebound came directly to Rasmussen, who played the ball past Dykstra and scored. Carranza converted a Cunningham cross 17 minutes into the half and Kolb completed the scoring.

"I thought we did really well switching the field and getting everyone really involved," Kolb said. "It's always nice to get everyone involved. At first, we weren't showing teams what we were made of. I think, now, we're starting to really get the hang of everything."

Concordia has an artificial turf field, which helps both teams, especially at a time of the year when grass fields are still just turning green. While wind was a problem for both teams, the surface was flat and conducive to the passing styles both teams try to play.

For St. Edward, Saturday's game was a chance to get a look at last year's Class 3A second-place team.

"Some of the girls performed, so that's a good thing," Brieger said. "We just don't have the depth. Our girls and our program is one where you play the hardest competition you can to get ready for the state tournament. I could schedule teams we could easily beat, and we wouldn't learn anything."

St. Charles East has only played four matches, but has a match with West Chicago and the Saints' own Augsburg-Drach Invitational later in a four-match week.

"Today was good in that we were able play our entire roster and to have continuously changing lineups," Jennison said. "The team is buying into what we're trying to do, and they are getting better every match.