Girls soccer: Brousseau keeps LZ believing

Believing in the process has kept Lake Zurich's girls soccer team unbeaten.

Kristin Brousseau has helped too.

Brousseau had an outstanding junior season and has continued to provide strong play and leadership this spring. She knocked in a couple of goals and added an assist Friday as Lake Zurich shut out South Elgin 4-0 in the opening game of the Prospect invitational in Mt. Prospect.

Brousseau has 10 goals on the season.

The Bears (3-0-3) have won the invite two of the last three years. The opportunity to win the title again will not happen, however, as Saturday's games were canceled due to the rain and cold.

"It's nice to be a part of this tournament," Lake Zurich coach Michael Castronova said. "The last couple of years we've had some really good games and done pretty well. There's always good competition with all the teams."

Lake Zurich got going quickly against South Elgin (0-5-2), by scoring three goals in the first 20 minutes. Brousseau scored first off an assist from Samantha Hartman in the 12th minute. Brousseau then assisted on Rachel Krueger's goal in the 18th minute for a 2-0 lead.

"The big thing was coming out strong and putting in goals early," Castronova said. "We talked about that coming in. We've been working all week with our forwards playing to their feet, turning and going forward to the goal - defensively, too, playing to the feet and playing it wide. They're following the game plan to a 'T.' "

Brousseau found the back of the net for the second time to make it 3-0, as she took a pass from Krueger.

"Our style is different this year," Brousseau said. "We're looking to connect more through the outsides. We're doing a good job playing it from the back, connecting through the middle and playing it to the top. That's where a lot of our chances come from."

Tess Vages finished the scoring in the second half off another assist from Brousseau.

South Elgin created a few chances working up top, but Bears keeper Claire Jones made 6 stops for a clean sheet.

The Storm played the contest without a couple of injured starters.

"We had chances and we had to make some adjustments here and there," South Elgin coach Laura Szwaja said. "(Lake Zurich) was very good at attacking from the wings, and we just couldn't handle that."