St. Charles East smothers Streamwood
Set pieces weren’t a major part of the St. Charles East girls soccer team’s offense last season.
That might change this season.
The Saints scored off two free kicks and two corner kicks Thursday as STC East cruised to a 5-0 Upstate Eight River victory over Streamwood at Millennium Field.
“I wouldn’t say depend on (scoring on set pieces). I’d say it’s an added bonus,” Saints coach Paul Jennison said. “We found on set pieces we’ve got people who can hit the ball and we’ve got, maybe, a little more strength in that than we had last year. So hopefully that’s something that we can add goals from.”
Amanda Hilton got the Saints (2-1, 1-0) started in the third minute, putting in a free kick from Rachel Pottle. In the ninth minute, East and Pottle struck again on a set piece. Pottle scored on a free kick from 23 yards putting her right-footed shot just under the crossbar for a 2-0 lead.
The lead increased to 3-0 in the 14th minute. Hilton’s shot from 25 yards was deflected. Lauren Rohrmeier ran onto the loose ball inside the Sabres’ penalty area and beat Streamwood goalkeeper Brianna Roppo, who finished with 11 saves.
“It’s nice to get two wins over spring break,” Jennison said. “We’ve obviously had a lot of games canceled and other teams have played five or six. It’s certainly nice to get a few goals on the board.”
East scored off two corner kicks in the second half, though both seemed to come off broken plays. Ellie Sterner beat Roppo to a loose ball near the far post after a shot went across the goal to make it 4-0 in the 60th minute. In the 69th minute, a loose ball fell right in front of Brianna Kruit, who scored with her right foot.
The Sabres (1-4) got only one shot on goal as they spent most of their time trying to defend. They were missing three starters.
“It wasn’t too bad. I was actually very pleased with how well we held them off and contained,” Streamwood coach Chelsea Lloyd said of keeping the Saints off the board for 45 minutes after the third goal. “When you’re working so hard to play defense, it’s hard to transition into offense. They were all over us. You can only do so much.”