Carmel 5, Stevenson 2
It was the second straight day of first-half high-fives for Carmel girls soccer team.
Sara Petermann topped it off by scoring a hat trick on Tuesday afternoon as the Corsairs scored 5 goals in the first half for the second straight game and rolled to a 5-2 victory over visiting Stevenson in a semifinal of the Lake Forest Snowball Classic semifinals.
The Corsairs will take on Lake Forest at a later date to determine a tourney champion.
Carmel had opened with 5 goals in Monday's East Suburban Catholic conference road victory 7-3 and equaled it on Tuesday against Stevenson.
"We've been real good about coming out strong this year," Carmel coach John Halloran said. "We've got our best players up front to do the damage.
"This is the level this kids are capable of playing. It still would be nice to put together 80 minutes of it. We seem to do real well when we're ready to play."
Petermann (13 goals and 10 assists) also added an assist as the Corsairs (8-1) scored 4 goals through the first 20 minutes.
"My teammates are the ones who set me up," said Petermann, who was amazed by a corner kick goal aided by the wind in the 11th minute. "The one from the corner hung perfectly and dropped right in. It looked like everybody stood there looking at it."
Petermann's other 2 goals were just as good. She beat two defenders after taking a pass from Boland and scored in the second minute.
Kassidy Brown (8 goals and 5 assists) joined in the Corsairs' highlight reel with a move of her own. Brown made a cutback move in the box after taking a pass from Petermann and found the back of the net in the eighth minute.
Petermann's third goal was on a perfect Brown cross in the 20th minute. Petermann played the ball in and out of the hands of Stevenson goalkeeper Courtney Levy and scored.
Stephanie Swanson added a goal in the 30th minute as Alex Hauser assisted.
Stevenson (3-2) got its goals in the second half, when Ali Hall scored on a cornerkick in the 60th minute. Hall also assisted on the Patriots' other goal, which came in the 77th minute from Missy Halinski.
"We got beat by a good team," Stevenson coach Mark Schartner said. "They've got three true forwards and something that every high school team would like to have. They proved it and they're a nice team.
"We did have 21 shots in the second half and we could've come back in this game. I thought we won the second half but lost the first half 5-0. I think we proved we're a real quality team."