Girls soccer: Wauconda downs Deerfield

At halftime, Wauconda took notice of a wind shift and a drop in the temperature. But while discussing their game plan for the second half, the Bulldogs realized they would be going against the gusty winds.

For some teams, that would be considered a problem but Wauconda decided to play the ball on the ground and produced two of the most impressive passing combinations for goals.

Thus, Wauconda breezed past Deerfield 3-1 in the Libertyville pod of the PepsiCo girls soccer tournament on Tuesday night in Libertyville.

Host Libertyville won the earlier game over Niles West 7-0. The Wildcats (4-2) will next travel to take on the Bulldogs (6-1-1) in Wauconda on Thursday in the pod final at 6:15 p.m.

Wauconda broke a 1-1 tie with a pair of second half goals.

"We did feel the wind at halftime," Wauconda coach Beau Shogren said. "It's starting to all come together (with passing). The understanding between our defenders, midfielders and forwards is really working well. It's funny, because we're a little frustrated with the number of goals we've scored. It felt like we could have five or six. We know it's going to come with the way we're creating chances. We just need to be a little more patient with that final touch for the final finish."

Morgan Lung was part of the combination that earned the assists on both of the goals. The first one, she sent a ball to Megan Sinnott who ran on it and put it into an open net in the 50th minute for the 2-1 advantage.

Then Lung controlled the ball up top and dropped off a pass to Rosalie Wisniewski for the third goal in the 71st minute for the 3-1 difference.

"For me as a player, I see the situation either it's too close or cut myself off the angle and I just try to find someone as quick as possible," said Lung, who now has 5 assists this season. "It's easier to serve the ball, if you don't have a chance (to shoot), it's easier to have a have a teammate to score."

Wauconda opened the scoring with a long kick from Madelyn Thompson from 40 yards out that found the back of the net in the 24th minute.

But Deerfield (6-5) evened the match at 1-1 in the 32nd minute when Julia Neal scored off a pass from Riley Schimanski.

"It shouldn't have been 1-1 at halftime, we didn't deserve to be tied," Deerfield coach Rich Grady said. "I didn't think the wind had anything to do with it. (Wauconda) just played better than we did."

Libertyville made up for its 3-0 loss in the tournament's opening game against Metea Valley from last Saturday as the Wildcats recovered with a 7-0 victory over visiting Niles West.

Jada Higgins and Kaitlyn Christensen each had a pair of goals while Bryn Miller, Lauren Rocco and Mia Zaccaro had the others for Libertyville. Alex Hauser had a pair of assists and Melani Faber picked up an assist.

"Bouncing back, I still feel like we played really well," Libertyville coach Daniel De Paz said. "We got the loss last game, but this game we bounced back and kept playing like we did on Saturday. We played some good soccer, we were able to get behind their back line and put the goals away."