Girls soccer: Chang’s two goals push Lake Zurich past Palatine

Zoe Chang's two goals inspired a four-goal second-half that helped lead Lake Zurich to Wednesday’s 4-1 girls soccer victory at Chic Anderson Stadium over host Palatine.

The Bears (2-1-0) went into the intermission chasing the Pirates thanks to an early Ilianna Hernandez goal. Morgan Krueger drew the visitors level in the 49th minute.

“It took us a little while to get ourselves into the game, but when we finally began to connect passes, possess the ball, and play through our midfield, I felt we took control of the game,” said Bears coach Mike Castronova.

Jolee Waddington, Jocelyn Bonilla, Keira Seifert and Hernandez provided plenty of pace and creativity during the first quarter hour, but it wasn't enough to help Palatine find a second goal before the break.

“Even though it was 1-0 at the half, I thought we played pretty well, but once we scored our first goal, the momentum was with us the rest of the game,” Chang said.

The sophomore was stationed just in front of her back four, and proved to be a key figure in the game as she won nearly every ball that came her way to help the Bears control the middle of the park.

“We turned the ball over a lot, and they just seemed to win just about every ball in the midfield, especially in the second half when it seemed the ball was in our end almost all of the time,” said Pirates coach Aaron Morris.

“It's still early in the season, and there's a lot to learn and work on, so I am glad that we played just a talented and hard-working team like Lake Zurich to help prepare us for the season.”

Chang bagged the eventual game winner in the 53rd minute on a wonderful helper by Megan Suttmann, who was just brought on.

It became 3-1 at 74 minutes when the second of three assists from Creighton-bound Reilly Novak found an unmarked Chang, who finished her effort from distance.

Emily Bowen put the finishing touches on the victory five minutes later with a terrific finish of a Novak helper.