South Elgin takes Larkin to school
South Elgin girls soccer coach Tiffany Disher gave her team a homework assignment this past weekend.
The Storm had to watch a soccer game and write a paragraph about a player that plays their position and what that player did that impressed them. Disher took the best 10 selections, with the exception of goalkeeper, and those are the players that started Tuesday night against Larkin at Memorial Field.
The unusual starting lineup provided a goal just 6:06 into the match and helped the Storm to a 4-1 Upstate Eight Conference crossover victory over the Royals.
“I think with girls soccer, one of the big factors, is they don’t watch it outside of playing so they don’t see it from a different perspective,” Disher said. “So I’m trying to incorporate that, where they are watching it and getting new knowledge about where they should be on the field.”
South Elgin (2-1) has plenty of depth and versatility to use different lineup combinations. Disher subbed consistently to get fresh legs on the field and not always in the same position.
Savannah Uveges is one of those players. The sophomore played in the center of midfield in the first half and scored twice, once in the 16th minute and again in the 34th minute to give the Storm a 3-0 halftime lead. At the end of the game, Uveges was playing on the back line, helping South Elgin protect the lead.
“Skillwise we are evenly spread among the team,” Uveges said. “Really, anyone you can trust out there and sub in and out. The best part of our team is most players can basically play anywhere on the field. It’s not just one position their strongest at.”
Caitlan Lange opened the scoring for the Storm. Lange took a throw in from Anna Tracy, made a move to get the ball onto her right foot and fired a shot past Royals goalkeeper Diana Hernandez, who finished with 8 saves. Lauren Vedrine added the Storm’s fourth goal with a 30-yard left-footed blast to beat Hernandez in the 52nd minute.
The Royals (0-3) scored two minutes later for their first goal of the season. A corner kick from Rosa Camarena appeared to be going out of bounds before reaching the goal, but it stayed in played and found its way past the goal line before being cleared.
“With our experience level we have been kind of concentrating more on defense, trying to stop teams,” Larkin coach Ken Hall said. “We haven’t worked a lot on offense. It’s coming a little bit better. We were actually better offensively today than we have been in the first two games.”