Girls soccer: Burlington Central handles Huntley

Possess the ball and the goals will take care of themselves.

That philosophy worked well for the Burlington Central girls soccer team as it defeated the host Red Raiders, 3-1, in the Huntley tournament Thursday night.

Sydney Pryor got the Rockets on the board early and Zoey Kollhoff scored twice for Central.

"We want to focus on possessing the ball and we have been telling them that goals will come out of possession, you don't have to focus on the goal specifically," said Central coach Jess Arneson. "We've set a lot of goals outside of just scoring for ourselves that revolve around possession. So we've worked really hard on that."

Pryor put Central (3-0) ahead in the sixth minute, lining a shot from about 30 yards away.

Brenna Keegan answered for Huntley (1-2-1) as her shot on the ground from 30 yards out found the back of the net.

Then Kollhoff took over, scoring twice in a span of just over 5 minutes. Her header off a Jordan King free kick in the 21st minute gave Central the lead for good. Then she dribbled through the defense and fired in a shot over Huntley keeper Jenna Franklin.

The last goal in particular was a team effort.

"Isa (Hartmann) and Makenna (Cobb), our midfielders and our forward line, had a lot of great pressure the entire game," Kollhoff said. "The ball got misdirected into the middle. Luckily I was there and was able to put it away."

"They got a goal, we didn't step up to pressure real well," said Huntley coach Matt Lewandowski. "We were a little disorganized. Then we got one back and it was an even ballgame, but two gift goals put us down in the back."

The Rockets largely dominated play in the first half. Kollhoff had a couple of other good scoring chances and Megan Majewski was denied on a diving save by Franklin.

The second half was more a war of attrition, with Franklin and Central goalkeeper Erin Rafferty handling the relatively few scoring chances.