Girls soccer: St. Charles East shuts out Geneva to win own tourney
It's impossible to do any better than to win the games that are there for you to win, and by that standard, St. Charles East can't do any better than it has through nine matches this spring. The Saints are 9-0 and have yet to allow a goal.
The latest of these shutout victories took place Saturday, a 3-0 win over Geneva to claim the Saints second consecutive Augsburg-Drach Memorial Tournament title, and the hosts were in control for most of the 80 minutes at Norris Stadium.
"I think we're in a really great place, being 9-0 and not having any goals scored on us and with the amount of goals we have scored. This is a great group of girls and I think we can do a lot this season," St. Charles East junior Claire Rasmussen said.
St. Charles East's first two goals came through Rasmussen. She opened the scoring 17 minutes before halftime when she hit a half-cleared Julia Peterson corner kick with a first-time shot into the net.
Rasmussen doubled her team's lead 10 minutes into the second half when she fired a direct free kick from 19 yards just left of center into the right side netting.
"It was great to be able to put two goals away today," Rasmussen said. "On the first, the goalie punted it out to my left foot, and I shot it right in. On the free kick, the back post was wide open."
Less than a minute after Rasmussen's second goal, Chantel Carranza sealed the victory when she dribbled past defenders and scored.
"We talked today about how one of our big things this year has been 'trust,'" St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. "We trust each other on the field and it's been very positive so far. I know people make a big deal about the shutouts. That's great, but we're working toward other intangibles, which are to enjoy our time together and make sure we're as competitive as we can be."
For all they have achieved, Jennison said he is aware it is still early April, and there is a long way to go this season.
"Without trying to downplay anything, we're not where we want to be yet," Jennison said. "There's still a lot of things we're going to back and work on in practice and there's a lot of things we can tidy up, and we know that."
Looking back through its history, St. Charles East (9-0) has had a number of airtight defenses, and this is the latest rendition. Keeper Alison Chesterfield sits at the base of the defensive setup that is still unscored upon.
"Our back line is pretty strong, but at the same time, we're strong all across the field when it comes to defending. It's a whole team effort, defending from the front to the back," Chesterfield said.
Chesterfield had to work for the shutout over Geneva. The Vikings entered the match 5-0-1 and had dangerous spells. Late in the first half, Sydney Gratz fed Kyleigh Dominguez, who forced Chesterfield to make a save at the near post. Midway through the second half, Caitlin Farrell forced another strong Chesterfield save when free on the right side of the penalty area.
"Any time you have to make saves, you're so focused that you're not really thinking," Chesterfield said. "You're reacting and you rely on the training that you've had."
Those chances and other positive play left Geneva (5-1-1) in a hopeful mood as it left the field.
"It's still early in the season, but my team showed we can hang with St. Charles East," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "We had about as many chances as they did. They finished and we didn't, and that's maybe the difference."
Geneva has a series of difficult matches coming before the end of the month, including the Naperville Invitational and a match at St. Charles North.
"We took a lot of positives away from this match," Owens said. "I don't want to take anything away from St. Charles East, but my kids walk away knowing the scoreboard didn't really reflect the game. We played well and possessed. But that final ball was what we could not get. But I think we gained confidence from this game."