Girls soccer: Gousios hat trick propels Burlington Central over Dundee-Crown

Liz Gousios provided the offensive fireworks while Abbi Ciganek put together a stellar effort in the goal.

Gousios scored 3 goals and Ciganek registered 15 saves as Burlington Central blanked Dundee-Crown 5-0 in second round action of the PepsiCo Showdown girls soccer tournament in Carpentersville Tuesday afternoon.

Gousios, who tallied the Rockets' first goal of the game with 11:22 elapsed in the game, scored all her goals in the first half. Jordan King assisted on all 3 of Gousios' goals.

"I work well with Jordan and it is a good combination," said Gousios. "She gave me some great passes. We wanted to get off to a good start and score early.''

Megan Majewski and Sydney Pryor added goals for the Rockets (7-3).

"Liz is certainly one of the people we depend on to score goals," said Central coach Jessica Arneson. "We have a lot of people who can score. I liked our energy to start the game. I tell the team we want to own the first 10 minutes and we did today."

Ciganek collected 12 of her 15 saves in the second half.

Leading D-C 4-0 at halftime, the host Chargers (2-5) tested Ciganek early in the second half.

With only 1:48 ticked off the clock in the second half, D-C's Mary May broke through the Rocket defense for a breakaway shot on Ciganek. The Central junior keeper dove to the left and pushed the ball away from the net.

With 36:24 left in the contest the Chargers' Samantha Christensen was awarded a direct kick from 20 yards out. Christensen blasted the ball on net and Ciganek was able to preserve the shutout while making a leaping save.

"My job is to make sure the ball doesn't go in the net," said Ciganek. "As a goalie I have to play hungry, fearless and be able to sacrifice my body. I try to implement different things every time I play. I give my defense credit. They play so well in front of me."

Dundee-Crown coach Sebastian Falinski realizes his team has to put together two solid halves to beat a team the caliber of Central.

"We laid an egg in the first half," said Falinski. "We were outworked and out-hustled and that is disappointing. We played with better energy in the second half but that isn't enough. We need to put the pieces together and play a complete game for 80 minutes."