Girls soccer: Elgin, South Elgin take lessons from scoreless draw

At the end of the night the scoreboard read 0-0 at Millennium Field in Streamwood on Tuesday, but the South Elgin and Elgin girls soccer teams could both still take a lot away from their scoreless nonconference battle.

The Storm had the upper hand when it came to an 11-3 shot advantage, but the Maroons' defense and goalkeeper Hannah Erickson countered with a stellar effort.

"Hannah is always solid back there," Elgin coach Alicia Knoll said. "She is very composed and I always have a lot of confidence in her. I thought the whole team played well. This was definitely a first step in the right direction. We didn't let up and did a good job of possessing the ball."

Erickson finished with 7 goals for Elgin (0-0-1).

"Our defenders were able to force their shooters wide and into some tough angles," Erickson said. "I just had to clean up whatever was left, but they didn't get that many great shots. I really liked the way the whole team played. It was a good start for us."

The Storm (1-0-1) had a couple of good scoring opportunites. The first came with just under two minutes to play in the first half when Elizabeth Mendoza had an open shot from 25 yards out, but was stopped on a nice save by Erickson. The next came just over 12 minutes into the second half when Citlali Sanchez sent an open shot in front of the net just over the crossbar. The Storm also couldn't take advantage of 6 corner kicks.

"We had the ball on the end we wanted it, but we just weren't able to finish," South Elgin coach Laura Szwaja said. "We need to take more shots and get better shots. It was especially frustrating to have that many corner kicks and not be able to get a single solid attempt at the net. Sometime we just stand back and wait when we should be attacking."

On a positive note, Szwaja was very pleased with her team's defensive play despite missing a couple of starters.

"I thought my core Grace Franks and Arielle Walters really stepped up," Szwaja said. "They did a good job of maintaining shape and helping out their teammates."

Knoll also acknowledged a couple of her players.

"Hayley Munoz has really made the transition from freshman to sophomore," Knoll said. "She is playing with a lot more drive and passion. Nancy Garcia also did a great job at middle. She kept her composure in the back and was able to control with the pass feed and pushing it forward."