Christian Liberty smoothly tunes up for the postseason
Sam Amedin's 5-goal outburst helped fuel a big day for Christian Liberty Academy's girls soccer team, which overwhelmed visting Schaumburg Christian 10-0 in a nonconference contest Thursday afternoon in Arlington Heights.
The Chargers' leading goal-scorer bagged 4 in the first half as the hosts built a 8-goal advantage at the intermission before finishing off the Conquerors with 2 more to give Aaron DeRidder's club plenty of momentum heading into a regular-season finale Friday at Lake Forest Academy before a regional opener next Tuesday.
"We've been a little short-handed all season long, sometimes having just one or two players in reserve on our bench, but we're finally getting close to being 100 percent healthy, which is exactly where we want to be at this time of the season," said DeRidder, whose club was recently anointed the No. 1 seed at the Deerfield regional. The Chargers will open the postseason against No. 4 seed Cristo Rey St. Martin of Waukegan.
"This is an exciting time for us - we've never been the No. 1 seed, and we feel like we have a good chance to get into the sectionals if we continue to play the way we have," said Amedin, a sophomore who leads the club in goal scoring with 11 goals. "There's been a lot of improvement from all of us. Each player has stepped up this season, and since almost all of us are back from last year, the advantage of being together for another year has made a big difference in our play."
DeRidder feels the Chargers' chances of advancing are better than ever, despite having St. Edward, last year's third-place team at 1A, in its sectional. Also present is Johnsburg, which lost to St. Edward in the sectional championship a year ago.
"We beat North Shore Country Day early in the season, and they're a one-seed in their regional, but lost to both Westminister and Harvest Christian (Nos. 3 and 4) when we were really shorthanded due to various injuries, so we feel we are right there with those two teams," said DeRidder. "To me, the team to beat in this sectional is Willow Academy. They have a lot of talented players. But if we see them later on, it will be in the sectional final in two weeks."
The Chargers struck for two early goals, then another pair just before the half hour with Amedin and Valerie Karr finding the back of the net, before the floodgates opened up on Schaumburg Christian, which played the final nine minutes of the first period a man down when left the match Alessandra Pedroza left the match with a wrist injury, leaving coach Josh Washburn without fresh legs until the Conquerors' underclass game was completed on an adjoining park district field.
"We had a rough day out there today, and some bad luck with a couple of injuries which left us without any subs for awhile, but give our girls credit, they didn't give in, and they played hard right up until the final whistle," said Washburn, whose club is at West Lake next Monday afternoon.
Amedin fired in three straight for the Chargers all within three minutes, with Karr driving in her second of the first half just seconds before the halftime whistle.
The Chargers backline of Anna Davis, Cassie Swiderek and Carly Adelsburger had an easy time of it for most of the day in front of keeper Becky Davis, but not without a few nervous moments after the break, as the trio of Gabriella Abbate, Courtney Benson and Hannah Zandstra came alive, putting the Chargers under pressure with their pace and energy, particularly during the opening exchanges of the second half.
"Gabriella and Courtney did a great job for us today - especially Gabriella, who in the first half did well as our center back, despite the goals they scored on us," said Washburn.
For Christian Liberty, meanwhile, it's full speed ahead in anticipation of the playoffs.
"Our defense has been getting better and better with each game, and it's the reason we've been better as a team - and the reason our offense has been so much better as well," said the Chargers' Maddie Bennett, who had 4 assists to give her a team-high 13. "We're possessing the ball so much better than last year, and just playing better all-around soccer, so we're all looking forward to the start of our regional next week."