Girls soccer: Brown, Huntley shut out St. Viator

Huntley senior goalkeeper Abbey Brown is ecstatic to be playing soccer again.

Brown, who missed the entire 2016 campaign with a knee injury, collected 6 saves in posting a shutout as the Red Raiders blanked St. Viator 2-0 in second round action of the PepsiCo Showdown at Huntley Thursday night.

The Huntley net minder saved her best effort for the waning moments of the contest.

St. Viator freshman forward Meghan Martin raced through the Huntley (4-3-2) defense and rifled a 10-yard shot on Brown, who made the save to preserve the shutout with a minute and 50 seconds left in the contest.

"I was just trying to get a hand on the ball to keep the ball out of the net," said Brown. "If they get a goal there it makes the game a lot closer. It was awful last year watching our team (fourth in Class 3A) do so well. It was very hard. I made it through basketball season and the knee is about 90 percent."

Huntley coach Kris Grabner is happy to have Brown back.

"I know it was tough on Abbey not being able to play last year," said the Huntley veteran coach. "She is making a difference for us this year. She is getting better each game and is becoming a leader with this young team."

With the game scoreless after 40 minutes of play, the Red Raiders scored first on an unassisted goal by Alyssa Xanos with 20:14 remaining in the game. Xanos emerged from a pile in front of the net and blasted a shot past by Lion goalkeeper Anna Johnston.

The Red Raiders, who were outshot by St. Viator 6-4, tallied an insurance goal with 14:19 left as Brenna Keegan scored off a perfect pass from Tayah Owens to give the Red Raiders a 2-0 advantage.

"We made some adjustments at halftime and were able to take advantage of the wind and wreak some havoc," said Grabner. "We attacked offensively in the second half. We are a young team that is starting to work together. It takes time and repetitions in practice to get to where we want to be."

Johnston recorded 2 saves for the Lions (2-3-1).

"We were terrible," said St. Viator coach Mike Taylor. "We gave the ball away too much and we couldn't string any plays together. We have only 3 seniors but we need to step up and play better. Huntley was a better team than us today."