Surging Larkin handles Streamwood

The Larkin girls soccer team is enjoying a nice little renaissance in the 2015 season.

Prior to this campaign, the Royals hadn't won more than 3 games in a season since 2006.

Don't look now, but the team is within striking distance of tripling that win total, and maybe, just maybe, becoming a force to reckoned with in the forthcoming state playoffs.

On Wednesday, Larkin notched its seventh win of the season in defeating Streamwood 3-1, scoring twice in the first 16 minutes of the game, and adding an insurance tally in the 53rd minute. The best Streamwood could do was a goal off a corner kick in the 62nd minute.

Is Larkin coach Ken Hall enjoying his program's resurgence?

"Absolutely," said Hall, whose team improved to 7-8-1 overall and 1-3-1 in the Upstate Eight River. "The fact that we're young also is a big thing for us. We have eight freshmen and seven sophomores, and they are a big part of the turnaround, there's no question about it. Our seniors are leaders and have been doing a great job.

"The fact is, we have a really cohesive unit. All the girls like each other … they are friends and play for each other, and it's showing on the field."

The Royals melded an attacking offensive posture with a tough defensive stance against Streamwood's top scoring threat senior Tawny Carroll, who will be playing at Drake University next year. Larkin's back line of senior Ana Leon and sophomores Tanya Franco, Maria Mendoza and Karina Trujillo simply didn't allow Carroll an open look at the goal all evening, collapsing on her each time she took the ball.

The closest Carroll got all evening was in the 60th minute, when she sent a shot on a set piece into the Larkin wall. She took the rebound and fired a bullet into the hands of Larkin goalkeeper Haley Casebeer, who bobbled it and was subsequently kicked out of bounds by a teammate.

That set up a corner kick that Carroll took, dropping the ball into a crowd that freshman Kaila Ford corralled and fired into the center of the net.

But it was too little, too late for the Sabres, who fell to 7-9 overall and 0-5 in the league.

"The defense a lot of time doesn't get credit in the newspapers," Hall said. "We shut them down for the most part and I was really pleased with the way that we did that."

Larkin wasted no time getting on the board, as junior Samantha Moreno connected in the 10th minute, dropping a shot from the center of the 18-yard box into the left corner of the goal, with an assist from Mendoza.

"I just really wanted to score against them," Moreno said. "I had more space, but I just shot it to make sure it went in."

Six minutes later, Larkin took a 2-0 lead, on a bullet into the right corner of the net by freshman Maricruz Ortiz, assisted once again by Mendoza.

It almost became 3-0 in the 31st minute, when freshman Joselin Sanchez took a cross pass midfield and raced toward the right corner, firing a shot that was grabbed by Streamwood senior goalkeeper Nathalie Guindon. A minute later, Moreno nearly scored again, missing a shot from the left sideline that flew just wide of the right corner of Streamwood's goal, eliciting an "Ooohh" from the crowd at Elgin High School's Memorial Field.

Sanchez added the early second half insurance goal when she deflected in a pass from the right side from sophomore Stephanie Nunez.

That's how most of the evening went for Streamwood went, much to the chagrin of coach Matt Polovin.

"I have to give credit to Larkin - they completely outplayed us, in every aspect of the game, both sides of the ball," he said. "I think the girls came out and thought goals were just going to happen. Nothing seemed to go right for us at all, and everything seemed to go right for them. When we're down 2-0 in the first 20 minutes, you just kind of knew it wasn't going to be a good game for us."

Larkin outshot Streamwood 18-9. Guindon had 10 saves for Streamwood, while Casebeer had 6 for the Royals.

The future looks bright for Larkin, but Wednesday, Hall was simply content with beating a rival and in the process taking another step in relevance.

"We're really happy with the result," he said. "We were motivated to beat them, they beat us twice last year so we wanted to kind of return the favor this year."