Davis notches hat trick for Glenbard West

Glenbard West girls soccer coach Maciek Kusmierz wanted to leave senior Lauren Davis at outside midfield.

Glenbard South wished he had.

Moved to forward midway through the first half of Thursday's Glen Ellyn rivalry game at Glenbard South, Davis responded with a second-half hat trick to give the Hilltoppers a 3-0 victory. It was her second hat trick of the season.

“I know that Lauren possesses offensive abilities, but she also does a very good job as an outside midfielder and sometimes I have to sacrifice her talents at the outside midfield position,” Kusmierz said. “But anytime I put her up front I know she poses a threat to the opposing team. She's capable of scoring a variety of goals: close range, long range, finishing off of crosses.”

Davis got her first goal in the 52nd minute off a through ball from teammate Kaitlin Moore about 10 yards out. The second goal came just 93 seconds later and looked a lot like the first.

“Glenbard South is our biggest rivalry, and we always like to get good shots and I wanted to come out strong in the second half, especially when we're with the wind,” Davis said of the strong wind howling over the north goal. “I got some good balls from Kaitlin Moore. We worked well together as a team offensively.”

“The opponent simplified their play and they just started playing through feet and we did not, and that's going to cost you,” Raiders coach Glen Eggert said. “You get against that good possession you're going to end up chasing, and when you start chasing bad things happen.”

Davis almost earned her hat trick in the 63rd minute, driving a free kick off the Raiders' crossbar, but she finally got it in the 80th minute with a long-distance blast for her 10th goal of the season.

“In the beginning we probably were a little nervous,” Davis said. “This is a big game for us. But then in the second half we started to settle down and move the ball a lot better than we were in the first half.”

The back line of Alyssa Cantore, McKinzie Powers, Larken Henkel and Haverly Snyder helped protect goalkeeper Michelle Vonachen's shutout.

“Our back line, we have to deal with injuries,” Kusmierz said. “We can't really get the consistent lineup going. We have players playing different positions. Today we had Larken Henkel sweeping for us and she hasn't been playing with us the past eight games. It took us a while to get the chemistry going back there. The first half we kind of made a few unforced mistakes, but I think the second half with the wind made it a little bit easier. We picked it up a bit, and I think in the second half especially we limited Glenbard South to very few opportunities.”

Glenbard West improved to 4-5-2. Glenbard South is 4-5-1.