Girls soccer: Davis’ hat trick leads Kaneland over Sycamore

As Olivia Davis trotted over to the sideline asking for a rest, Kaneland coach Scott Parillo didn’t love the idea.

“You can’t cramp,” he said. “You’ve scored twice.”

Davis wasn’t out of the lineup long, finishing up her first-half hat trick 30 seconds after returning to the game, giving the Knights a three-goal cushion in their 4-2 win over Interstate 8 rival Sycamore on Monday in Maple Park.

“I just felt really excited and felt like we had it and to keep going and score more so they can’t catch up to us,” Davis said about her return in a 2-0 game six minutes after she left. “I just took the ball, drove it to the goal and focused on making the shot. And that’s exactly what I did.”

The Spartans (4-4 overall, 2-1 conference) dominated possession and had a few scoring chances early, but Davis and the Knights connected first.

Davis’ first two goals came on assists from Doucette. Davis was speeding up the middle of the field when Doucette fed her with the perfect touch pass, hitting her in stride. Davis put it past Lana Walker for a 1-0 lead with 20:43 left.

Doucette fed a pass to Davis again, this time coming from the right side and finding Davis in the middle. The shot beat Walker and the Knights went up 2-0 with 19:41 left in the first half.

Parillo said he thought Davis was poised for a breakout year. Doucette scored a school-record 40 goals last year and Taylor Mills scored 23.

But the Knights had scored only 12 goals through their first five games, led by five for Davis. Parillo moved Davis up to forward Monday.

“We thought this might be a good season for Olivia and it’s turning out to be that way,” Parillo said of Davis. “We just weren’t gelling right away. It takes time. Hopefully this is a good sign.”

Davis finished her hat trick with 13:11 left in the first half on a feed from Mills. She ended up rolling her ankle and did not return, though she was walking lightly on it.

The teams traded goals in the final three minutes of the half. Cortni Kruizenga took a cross from Marin Gautcher, then sent it back the other way with 2:59 left to get the Spartans on the board.

Samantha Ortega answered back, taking a cross from Doucette and punching it home with 0:11 left in the half.

“I wasn’t happy with the way they scored that goal with just a couple minutes left,” Parillo said. “Hey, wow, we’re up 3-0. Nope, wait now we’re up 3-1, but oh wait a minute we just scored another one to go up 4-1 at halftime. Obviously it gives us a little bit of an advantage.”

The Spartans had chances to take an advantage early but were turned away by Liliana Guzman and the Kaneland defense. Guzman denied Kelsie Ryder’s shot in the ninth minute.

Four minutes later, Addison Rodriguez made a run on goal but Adriana Warrington chased her down and cleared the ball. Kruizenga had a shot two minutes later go just wide.

Rodriguez added a goal in the 77th minute after the Knights were down a player when Corinne Faivre picked up her second yellow card.

Outside of the seven-minute stretch in which Davis scored her three goals, the Spartans outscored the Knights 2-1.

“I thought we were the better team in the second half,” Sycamore coach Kevin Bickley said. “We had it down their end. A couple chances that go in, a couple calls in the box, maybe it’s a different game.”