McEachern scores hat trick against Lake Park

Batavia's Megan McEachern is dominating Lake Park's annual Chris Frizzelle Memorial Tournament.

The senior forward scored a hat trick against the host Lancers on Tuesday as the Bulldogs dominated from start to finish in a 5-0 girls soccer victory.

McEachern has scored 5 goals in Batavia's two games in the tournament.

"It's not just me," she said. "I think a lot of us have obviously been playing together for a long time and we know each other's runs and we communicate well. That's really helped us score a lot."

Batavia has scored 26 goals in just five games.

Junior Keegan Maris scored the only goal the Bulldogs needed, connecting early in the first half, while McEachern scored 2 of her 3 goals before halftime as the Bulldogs opened a 3-0 lead.

"That's something we promote a lot and if we can score a couple in the first 5 or 10 minutes we know (the opponent's) heads will go down," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "We kept pushing through and they kept playing but not at the same level."

Batavia (5-0) controlled possession and never let the Lancers develop much of an attack.

"What a nice, composed team Batavia is. They played the game nicely," Lancers coach Anthony Passi said. "That's a solid team. Naperville North and Batavia are two of the better teams we've seen."

Lake Park (1-4-1) is young and its inexperience was apparent in the loss.

"We've still got to find our identity," Passi said. "We're young and don't have much varsity experience, but the big thing is they have got to hustle up and down the field and play 80 minutes of soccer. Those are things they have to learn quickly."

McEachern earned her hat trick midway through the second half, scoring off a rebound with 22:12 remaining to make it 4-0.

The Bulldogs had numerous other scoring chances the rest of the way, but with the big lead, weren't pressed to finish any of them, although sophomore Gracey DiBiase perfectly lofted a shot in high with 20:16 left to conclude the scoring.

They put on a display of ball movement, which kept the Lancers chasing all afternoon.

"There was a lot of moving the ball and creating chances in front of the net," Gianfrancesco said. "They did a nice job of moving the ball. The girls are looking sharp and being physical when they need to be physical by challenging in the air, so it was a good outing."