Girls soccer: Cary-Grove rolls past Dundee-Crown
The Cary-Grove girls soccer team has picked up in the postseason right where it left off in the regular season.
The Trojans won their last 9 regular season games and have now knocked off their first two opponents in the playoffs.
On Friday C-G rolled to a 7-3 win in the Class 3A regional title game against host Dundee-Crown. It continued a trend of C-G winning regional titles every other year for the past 6 years.
Kelli Ives, Jenna Stayart, and Kelly Stayart each had a pair of goals to fuel the Trojans' offense. The 7 total goals matched the season high for C-G
"We have just continued to work hard to get to this point," C-G coach Ray Krystal said. "This has been one of our goals all along. This is a team that plays together and for each other and I think the results have shown that."
Cary-Grove's next challenge will be Tuesday at the Rockford Guilford sectional where the Trojans will meet the winner of Saturday's Huntley regional final between Elgin and Jacobs.
The Trojans (12-2-2) led just 3-2 late in the first half when Jenna Stayart turned up the heat a notch. She scored with just 3:34 left in the first half to increase the lead to 4-2. Then she set the tone in the second with another goal one minute in to make it 5-2. Less than 3 minutes later Kailyn Sheehan scored to make it 6-2.
"Our intensity was really high today and everyone contributed," Jenna Stayart said. "We were really moving the ball around. All of our goals were because of good teamwork. This was an exciting win. I think even more because we are such a young team."
Jenna's older sister Kelly is just one of 2 seniors on the squad. Kelly Stayart scored the Trojans' first and last goals of the contest.
Ives had a pair of back-to back goals in less than a 9-minute span in the first half that put the Trojans up 3-1.
"We have really been working hard to get here," Ives said. "So we are really excited. We had some nice through balls today and we were finishing. It was just a really good overall team win."
The Trojans had a 17-7 shot advantage.
"It was a competitive game by both teams right from the start," Krystal said. "I thought we played smart. We took advantage of our strengths and tried to neutralize theirs."
D-C finished the season 8-13. Braylin Mensik scored twice for the Chargers. Katelyn Skibinski also scored for D-C.
"We played really well in spurts today," D-C coach Rey Vargas said. "But that's been the story all year. It's been a roller coaster. At moments we look great, but we were very inconsistent. Inexperience has a lot to do with that."