Royals, Sabres battle to a tie

Streamwood girls soccer coach Matt Polovin said his team's biggest issue early on this season has been finishing.

Tuesday night was no different.

The Sabres forced Larkin goalkeeper Anna Goodlove to make 10 saves, but couldn't get a shot past her as the Sabres and the Royals played to a 0-0 tie at Memorial Field.

"Chance after chance after chance, that's been our Achilles' heel," Polovin said "We just haven't gotten that big foot jammed in there to put it in the goal."

Streamwood (0-3-2, 0-0-1 Upstate Eight) really began to become more aggressive offensively in the final 25 minutes. Cinthya Garcia controlled a cross and fired a low shot toward the near post with 23 minutes remaining. Goodlove was able to make the save. Six minutes later, the junior had to stop back-to-back shots 30 seconds apart, the first coming on a breakaway by Valentina Escalante, who was forced to shoot from farther out than she probably would have liked as the Royals' defense closed quickly.

Goodlove finished with 6 saves in the second half.

"She's been outstanding this year," Royals coach Ken Hall said. "The games we've won, half the reason is because of the way she's played."

Larkin (3-6-2, 0-0-1) did not have a shot in the second half, but had the best scoring chance of the first half. Morgan Smith found room to fire a shot from the top of the penalty area 8 minutes into the game. Sabres goalkeeper Brianna Roppo, who made 3 saves, was forced to push the shot over the crossbar.

"We wanted to play a lot more on the flank. We just kept kicking the ball in the middle and they kept kicking it out," Hall said. "The effort was there. I just don't think we played very smart."