Peterson scores again for WW South
Per Wheaton Warrenville South girls soccer tradition, the freshmen on varsity have to lug the ball bag off the field after every game.
Lexi Peterson won't mind at all. Not if the Tigers' freshman keeps playing the way she has through three games.
"Lexi is doing awesome. I'm so proud of her," said Tigers senior Lauren Livingston.
Peterson scored her third and fourth goals of the season in Thursday's win, and Livingston netted her first ball of the year in a 3-1 Tigers win over visiting Batavia.
"There's a sense of calm about her, in situations where others might panic," Tigers coach Guy Callipari said of Peterson. "And she can finish."
Three minutes into the game Peterson blistered a ball to the back netting from 16 yards out, giving Batavia an early deficit in its first game of the season.
Five minutes later it was Livingston's turn, capitalizing on the first of Jill Langlas' 2 assists from 6 yards out.
Batavia (0-1) came out strong in the second half, moving the ball well and finding feet. Hillary Cooper cut the Tigers' lead in half with a penalty-kick goal in the 50th minute of play.
"We had a couple mental errors there in the first half, and they capitalized on it, but we're going to be all right," said Batavia coach Jim McAlpin.
"We were a little out of control in the first half, just driving long balls, but in the second half our touch was better and we started playing a little bit."
McAlpin got solid efforts from Libby Cooper, Tara Rush, Tory Kinnard, "and I thought the other Cooper (Hillary) played pretty well, too," McAlpin said.
The Tigers answered Batavia's goal by putting their attack in a higher gear, until Langlas stepped on to a Nicole La Petina corner kick and flicked it over to Peterson, who volleyed it into net from 8 yards out.
"That was definitely a fork in the road, and at least we decided to take the right path," Callipari said. "We certainly could have been on our heels after (Batavia's goal), so that was something learned today."
"We have a long way to go. All three of our games have been typical early-season games," Livingston said. "We're still feeling each other out, and finding each others' tendencies."
One tendency the Tigers (3-0) have been able to count on thus far has been Peterson's tendency to find the back of the net.
"The (varsity) game is more physical, but so far it's been a lot of fun," Peterson said. "The team has been great."
McAlpin thought his girls showed well against a Tigers squad that improved to 3-0 with Thursday's win.
"They're very fast, well-organized, and well-coached," he said. "They're quick, and they beat us to a lot of 50-50 balls. But I also thought we showed a lot of promise tonight."