Girls soccer: Lakes comes up short against Deerfield

Making the right choice over the course of an entire game has so far been elusive for the Lakes girls soccer team.

The Eagles still found plenty of positives in a 2-0 nonconference loss to Deerfield on Friday and considered it a kind of victory to have competed game at all, after unplayable conditions Wednesday postponed the first attempt.

"That's part of what happens in the early part of the season," Lakes coach Kevin Kullby said. "You're never really playing your best, and you're always playing very spotty. At times you feel very good about how you play, whether your defending or attacking.

"Any coach at this stage of the season would say the same thing. We're not playing to our best, we're just playing to survive. We want to play good quality soccer - then the by-product of that is turning it into wins."

Lakes (1-3-1) played a scoreless first half with Deerfield (2-1-3). In the second half, the Eagles had a couple of miscues that led to Warriors goals.

"We had moments in the first half that we attacked very well," Kullby said. "I thought our touch was a bit off, and when we had moments where we could've done some damage to them, we lost those opportunities.

"We did defend beautifully in the first half and for the better part of the game. I really thought we did good things defensively and at times we did play well offensively. Unfortunately, like the game against Vernon Hills and in some other games, we're prone to make some defensive mistakes or mental errors that decide the game."

Deerfield got both of its goals from freshman Malori Killoren. On the first one, she got past a couple of Eagles defenders after taking a pass from Erin Rosenzweig in the 48th minute.

The Eagles had their sights set on a game-tying goal in the 76th minute on a corner kick. But the ball was deflected at the top of the penalty area in the direction of Deerfield. Killoren took control of it and made a 70-yard run, scoring a breakaway for the 2-goal difference.

"Our second half was better than the first," Deerfield coach Rich Grady said. "The first half we were nervous, hesitant and everybody was trying to do everybody else's job. At halftime, I was telling them to keep things positive and do what we can do. I like what I saw in the second half."

Both teams will be take part in the opening round of the PepsiCo Tournament which starts on Saturday morning at Olympic Park in Schaumburg. Lakes will play Shepard at 8:30 a.m. while Deerfield takes on Nazareth at 11:30 a.m.