Galarza, Elgin blank Westminster Christian

Melissa Galarza may not have made much of an impact for the Elgin girls soccer team last year, but the senior sure made her presence felt in the Maroons' season opener on Thursday.

Galarza scored a pair of goals to match her season total from a year ago and led the Maroons to a 4-0 win over Westminster Christian at Elgin's Memorial Field.

"She has come out this year with a lot of confidence," Elgin coach Alicia Knoll said. "She has put in a lot of work and it has been showing in practice. She is stronger to the ball and has a much better feel of where she needs to be on the field. And today it was great to see all that play out in the game."

Galarza scored the Maroons' only goal in the first half unassisted with just over 15 minutes left. She followed that up with a second goal just over 4 minutes into the second half on an assist from Hayly Munoz to make it 2-0.

"I've been working hard and really want to give it my all this year as a senior," Galarza said. "I've been working on my speed a lot and I think I'm getting better at understanding my options on the field. But it wasn't just one player today. We all worked as a team. Last year we didn't have the outcome we wanted. This year we want to do a lot better."

The Maroons (1-0) added a pair of goals to put the match out of reach. Emily Graves blasted a shot into the back of the net from 30 yards out with just over 26 minutes to play. Liz Munoz scored the Maroons' final goal with 20:42 left on a second assist from her sister Hayly Munoz.

"I am really happy with the way we played," Knoll said. "It's always nice to get those first game jitters out of the way. I was really impressed with how our freshmen responded in their first game. We communicated well and our crossing passes and corner kicks were strong. That gave us a lot of opportunities.'

Westminster (0-1) had very few opportunities, but coach Eric Schwartz was not at all discouraged.

"We like playing the bigger schools," Schwartz said. "They are a very good team and this is just great experience for us. We are very young and trying to build on something. Playing tough schools like this will make us better. I thought we stayed with them with them and played well defensively."

Hannah Erickson was in the net for the Maroons, but needed just 3 saves to record the shutout.