Another shutout win for Schaumburg
Schaumburg completed a highly successful first week of the girls soccer season when it handled visiting Crystal Lake South 7-0 Saturday afternoon in nonconference play.
The Saxons (3-0-0) roared into a 4-0 lead within 22 first-half minutes to lay the foundation for their third consecutive shutout win.
“We wanted to start out strong by establishing our possession game and using a big wind at our backs to get an early lead. And for the most part, we did exactly what we set out to do,” said Schaumburg coach Greg Charvat, whose club has outscored its opponents 16-0.
“Even though we lost some quality players from last year’s team,” said senior defender Ali Schmalz, who will play at Texas begining in the fall of 2012, “we’ve got a lot of experienced players back, especially in the middle. And also a lot of skilled players who all like play together as a good team should.”
Schmalz and her defensive teammates had little to do during most of the first 40 minutes as the veteran group of Teagan Eberle, Kelsey Steenstrup and Becky Sneddon ran the show from midfield. Forwards Alexa Ben and Riley Williams kept the pressure on the Gators, who earlier in the week dropped their opener to reigning Mid-Suburban West champ Conant 5-0.
“We had our troubles defending, especially in that first half, so we’re going to have to go back and correct some things, because it doesn’t get easier for us this week when we face St. Viator on Thursday afternoon,” said South coach Anne Santucci, whose team slipped to 1-2-0.
Williams’ first strike gave the Saxons a 1-goal advantage at six minutes when the junior used a nice side volley to go past keeper Tara O’Malley. Less than 60 seconds later, Williams doubled the lead for the hosts when she finished what Steenstrup started after the all-area midfielder collected a nice early ball out of the back.
At 11 minutes, Saxons standout sophomore Ben split a pair of defenders, and the young striker put her sixth goal of the season into the back of the net.
Charvat was able to rest many of his starters after the goal by Ben, and just moments after being brought on, sophomore Lexi Awdziejczyk made it 4-0 after a quick touch outside from Steenstrup found Sneddon down the right side. She went low from the endline and found an onrushing Awdziejczyk, who finished perfectly.
“With the wind in our face, we didn’t start very well, and it’s obviously tough to come back from 4 goals,” said Santucci. “But I have to say we played hard despite the deficit, and never let up at any time.”
Sneddon scored the first of her two goals just after the break, and after Ben converted a PK in the 69th minute, Sneddon and Eberle combined for the prettiest finish on the day to end the scoring at 77 minutes.
“We were able to get a lot of players minutes today, and that was a good thing for us,” said Charvat, whose club travels to Wheeling next Wednesday evening for its MSL opener. “I was impressed with how hard (South) played in the second half, and especially the last 20 minutes, which said a lot about them, while helping keep us sharp and ready to go for our next match at West Chicago (on Monday), which is always a tough opponent for us.”