St. Charles East blanks St. Edward
For 40 minutes on Thursday night, St. Charles East dominated possession, kept the ball in Elgin St. Edward’s half of play and aimed the ball a number of times toward the Green Wave goal.
But few of those attacking efforts had a real cutting edge, and St. Edward defended feverishly, and the teams headed to their halftime talk tied 0-0.
Things changed almost immediately in the second half. The host Saints began to assemble attacks that had bite and their work rate improved. And the hosts got a little luck too in a match that ended as a 7-0 victory.
St. Charles East’s first goal came in the 17th minute of the second half after Carly Pottle took a sharp shot from the top of the penalty area. The shot rebounded off Paige Gannon in the Green Wave goal and Clara Stoffel scored.
Ninety-two seconds later, Amanda Hilton sent a shot goalward that deflected off a defender’s leg into the net.
Those goals changed the tone of the match completely. Sam Lombardo scored a hat trick in the final 17 minutes with Anna Corirosi and Darcy Cunningham also hitting the back of the net for the Saints, who improved to 1-1.
“It was just simply a case that, in first half, we weren’t hitting our targets,” St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison said. “That means hitting our targets, getting a good first touch and hitting the first ball out wide. Those are some of our strengths and we just weren’t doing them.”
The first-half performance left the Saints in a quiet mood as they left the field to hear a sharp halftime talk from Jennison.
“The first half was definitely frustrating,” Pottle said. “We got shots off and we were getting the ball into the box but we couldn’t get touches at the end of it. But once we got that first goal, we got it after that.”
Pottle exhibited the team’s increased work rate 12 minutes into the second half when she ran 25 yards to keep a ball from going out of play on the end line to the right of the St. Edward goal. The ball eventually went out of play for a goal kick, but that sort of increased effort throughout the team eventually led to goals.
Lombardo’s goals were her first as a varsity soccer player.
“I feel really good and I feel the team did really well,” Lombardo said. “We picked it up in the second half. After we got the first goal, people started taking shots from everywhere.”
St. Edward (1-1) was able to look back at nearly 60 minutes of scoreless soccer as a good thing. The Green Wave finished fourth in the Class 1A tournament and facing a large school like St. Charles East was a good early-season challenge.
“I told (Jennison) that we gave them 60 minutes,” St. Edward coach Tim Brieger said. “Even then, the first bounced off (Gannon’s) hand and that was unlucky. The second goal, (Gannon) was in perfect position and it hit our defender in the shin.”
The Green Wave were organized and did get the ball into the attacking third on occasion, forcing St. Charles East goalie Bailey Stengler to come off her line to gather the ball. But Stengler never had to face any shots.
“I told the girls that this game was to see what we were made of, what kind of mettle we have,” Brieger said. “I was pleased with them. I told them at halftime that they’d cut the game in half. Yes, they dominated the flow of play and time of play and shots and every statistical category. But other than that, I was proud of my girls.”