Girls soccer: Barrington blanks Loyola 4-0

Barrington's girls soccer team continued to concede nothing to its opponents on Saturday afternoon.

The Fillies recorded their fifth straight shutout a 4-0 victory in its North Shore Invite tournament opener at Hoester Field in Wilmette.

After a slow start, the Fillies (5-0-0) broke open a tight contest with two late strikes just before the intermission, then finished off the Ramblers (4-4-0) for good on goals from Michayla Herr and Jackie Batliner.

"There was a little concern on our part that we were playing our third game in as many days, and that Loyola came in on a four-game winning streak," said Fillies coach Ryan Stengren. "And while we were not as sharp as we could have been, we still played well enough to beat a quality opponent."

"Barrington is a state-ranked team so we expected a difficult game today," said longtime Loyola coach Craig Snower, who is co-hosting this inaugural tourney along with rival Jim Burnside of nearby New Trier. "I thought at times we played well, even having a lot of the play at the same time. But in the end, it was a fair result."

There wasn't much from either side during the early exchanges on this bright, sunny, but windy afternoon. Each club struggled with possession and purpose in its game.

"We had some trouble holding the ball up top, and we weren't as good as we need to be in the final third," said Stengren, whose club will play five matches in the coming week, beginning with Palatine on Monday.

Anna Brodjian celebrated her return from the injury list by scoring the first goal of the day, a one-timer in close after teammate Lauren Caffe provided the helper for the senior in the 37th minute.

At 40 minutes, terrific ball movement by Batliner and Maesyn Poidomani broke the Loyola defense wide open for Ashley Prell.

Prell's calm finish at the back post sent the visiting Fillies into the break with a 2-goal advantage.

"The two goals before the half really helped us out a lot, and after that, I thought we played much better in the second half," said senior Haley Tausend.

Tausend, Batliner, Kayla Keck and Madi Rosen all insured keeper Samantha Schmitz had an easy time of it during her 80 minutes of work.

Tausend blocked a close range shot from Faith Craddock, who collected a free kick sent into the area by Emily Chrisman. A nicely-played combination from the duo of Elly Zern and Cale Shellenback was put to rest by a now confident Fillies' midfield unit.

The hopes of Loyola were all but ended on goals from Prell and Batliner.

Both were brilliant left-footed efforts which exploded into the back of the net from just outside the box in the 69th minute (Prell) and 74th (by the DePaul-bound Batliner).

"On a day when we were not at out best, we received real solid efforts from several of our players off the bench," Batliner said. "And all of them contributed with some great play to help us get the win today."

Barrington's next tourney opponent will be on Tuesday at Hinsdale Central, which lost to Glenbrook South 2-0 later Saturday. Loyola hosts Glenbrook South and Hinsdale Central this Tuesday and Thursday.