Girls soccer: Jacobs opens with win over Grayslake Central

After practicing for a month, Jacobs' girls soccer team was more than ready for game action.

The energized Golden Eagles were impressive with a season-opening 4-1 win over Grayslake Central in Fox Valley Conference crossover action in Algonquin Tuesday afternoon.

"We were really antsy to play a game," said Jacobs coach Stephanie Schuck. "There is only so many things you can go over in practice. I wanted to see what we could do in a game situation. It was a great way to start the season. We had a lot of creativity with our offense, had good movement and had more productive passes as the game went on."

Freshman Cassie Kowalski started the 2016 season for the Golden Eagles with a bang with a hat trick.

"We really wanted to get on the field and play," said Kowalski. "We were tired of practicing. My teammates gave me great crosses which gave me great opportunities to score. We were really clicking and meshing on offense especially for a first game. I am really proud of my teammates. It was a great way to start the season."

Unassisted, Hannah Mohan scored the Golden Eagles' first goal of the season with only 5:23 elapsed in the game.

Kowalski scored her first goal of the game off a perfect feed from Madison Belo to give Jacobs a 2-0 lead with 15:25 remaining in the first half.

The visiting Rams scored when Quin Garbett tallied a goal off an assist from Stephany Madrid with 12:43 left in the first 40 minutes to make the score 2-1. That was the score at intermission.

Kowalski scored 2 unanswered goals in the second half for the Golden Eagles, one unassisted and the other assisted by Karissa Gottardo.

Emily Pasetes was solid in the nets for the Eagles with 9 saves while Katie Pearson registered 6 saves for Grayslake Central (0-2-1).

"We certainly created enough chances in the game but couldn't put the ball in the net," said Grayslake Central coach Jamie Martin. "Jacobs certainly had better shots than we did through the entire game. They put the ball on the frame better than we did. We had some sloppy mistakes on the back end of our defense and they capitalized on all of them. Jacobs was certainly the better team today. It was a disappointing day for us. Every game has been a learning experience for this team. ''