It adds up to an IMSA victory at Christian Liberty
The growing pains continued for the young girls soccer team at Christian Liberty Academy after the Chargers were shut out 8-0 Tuesday afternoon in Arlington Heights against Northeastern Athletic Conference rival Illinois Math and Science Academy.
The visiting Titans (4-3-1, 2-0-0) struck for 5 first-half goals, including a pair from talented senior Alex Smick, who along with teammates Julianne Crawford, Judy Hooymans and Leslie Martin, had a hand in each of the Titans' goals.
"That's a very skilled and talented team," said first-year Christian Liberty coach Eric Jaime, who continues to move most of his players into different spots, all with an eye on the future as Jaime's roster features eight underclassmen, including a trio of freshmen.
"What we have to continue to work on is to reinforce technique and understanding the game, instead of putting winning ahead of everything else, and when you have so many new (varsity) players, sometimes that is a very difficult thing to get (them) to understand."
The Titans, who were coming off a 13-0 rout of Rockford Christian Life in their NAC opener, exploded early on to build a 3-0 lead just after the quarter hour, as Smick, who struck for 4 goals against Rockford, opened the scoring just after the whistle.
Crawford and Hooymans followed shortly thereafter, as the homeside struggled against an well organized attacking side. If not for several quality saves from freshman goalkeeper Destiny Kocurek, the Chargers (1-4-1, 0-2-0) would have been in much tougher shape at intermission.
"We can be very explosive at times, but we need to work on possessing the ball more, and to do a better job of knocking the ball around while doing so," said IMSA coach Sal Tamayo.
Tamayo's club did well to smother the Chargers duo of Stephanie Chaires and Sara Elleson, who each had plenty of energy and pace during the first half. Neither, however, was unable to get past a Titans backline which was big, strong and rarely missed a tackle.
Jaime brought Kocurek out of goal after the break and moved her alongside Amy Farmer and Samantha Barthen. That trio tightened things up in the back in front of Nicole Leahy, who took over for Kocurek.
Barthen in particular provided a handful of well-struck balls out of the back and over the top from the left side, but again, the Titans' defense always seemed to keep everything in front of it and away from keeper Samantha Lovin.
"We will build our team around the six, seven players we have with the most talent right now, and hopefully bring more along between now and next season," said Jaime.