Girls soccer: Wauconda blanks Warren
Wauconda's girls soccer team has had a good run over the last few years and it appears the Bulldogs are after another one, with several players who remember reaching the Class 2A sectional finals last season.
Wauconda was in a battle with Warren Thursday for almost 80 full minutes, until Olivia Kuch scored the game-winning goal in the final 37.7 seconds for a 1-0 nonconference victory in Wauconda.
Kuch scored the goal after taking a touch pass from Savanna Johnson and somehow Kuch found the ball while dealing with some late-afternoon sunshine.
"The sun was in my eyes for most of the game," said Kuch, who scored her second goal of the season. "My job is to be back there near the back post. If the ball gets past my teammates, I'm there to put the ball into the back of the net. Basically, it was timing and everything worked perfectly in my favor. I was able to poke it in. I did have the sun in my eyes basically the entire time and really didn't see it back there. I was looking for a sphere coming at me."
Wauconda improved its record to 3-1-1, recovering from a 3-0 loss to Stevenson on Tuesday.
"It had a vibe like a playoff game (against Warren) and we've had a few games like that," Wauconda coach Beau Shogren said. "I think we figured some things out in the midfield at halftime, because we have so much talent in the middle and at times I thought the girls were getting confused with their roles - who was going to handle the offense and who was going to handle the defensive responsibilities. Once we cleaned that up it opened us up for more counterattacks, got us to the corners more to hit some crosses across the box."
The match was played relatively even on both sides until the pace and intensity picked up in the final 20 minutes.
Emily Soriaga of Warren (0-2-1) nearly missed a goal with a shot off the crossbar in the 62nd minute.
Then, on the other side of the field a few minutes later, Wauconda had some breakaway opportunities and point-blank shots which Blue Devils' keeper Sarah Barbosa made 4 outstanding saves and turned away the potential goals in an 8-minute span.
Barbosa was returning to the field for the first time this season from an injured thumb incurred in the offseason. She played the second half Thursday, after Alana Turner saw time in the first half and made 3 stops.
"They are a little stressful but honestly they're my favorite," Barbosa said. "They're just reaction time, so it's basically a lot of repetition. Those are difficult saves, but they are my favorite. It's my duty and that's all I can do for the team."
Warren is still in search of its first win of the season, but played the game with the victory in reach for nearly 80 minutes.
Wauconda freshman goalkeeper Mackenzie Arden made 8 of her 11 stops in the second half and earned her third shutout.
"We knew that this would be good competition so early in the season," Warren coach Ryan McCabe said. "It was a good test for both of our teams. It was definitely a good hard-fought game by both clubs. I thought we're still trying to sort out how we're playing together as a team and there were some glimpses of really good soccer. We had some good combinations out of the midfield and playing out of the back sometimes. We had some good opportunities of getting some good opportunities on goal. These are bright spots that we can continue to grow."