South Elgin blanks Larkin to move on in regional play

Tiffany Disher has been watching for the key ingredient that can help her South Elgin girls soccer program continue to reach higher levels.

"I've been working all season to find that one animal, that one monster, who wants to break through and be the goal scorer," the Storm coach said. "And I think we found her."

That monster on Saturday afternoon turned out to be sophomore forward Lauren Vedrine, who scored a goal in each half of the Class 3A Jacobs regional 2-0 victory over Larkin, the first-ever regional victory for a South Elgin girls soccer team.

"I have very nice girls on this team, and they tend to try to get passes to each other, so they all have a chance to score," Disher said. "They get along really well and work well together, but we need to someone to step through and take the shot."

Vedrine was that someone in a game that was dominated by South Elgin, with at least 75 of the match's 80 minutes unfolding on Larkin's side of the field. The Storm put relentless pressure on Larkin goaltender Dianna Hernandez, who was called upon to make 20 saves as South Elgin fired 33 shots toward the goal in the contest.

Vedrine broke through with 29:32 left in the first half, taking a cross from Jill Ellison, splitting two defenders and driving a low shot past Hernandez into the right corner of the goal.

In the second half, Vedrine took a pass from Kelsey Fitzpatrick and drove toward the goal, causing Hernandez to move to her right side to protect the corner of the goal. Vedrine then lofted a high shot that floated over Hernandez into the far right corner of the goal with 33:57 left in the match.

Vedrine figured it was only a matter of time before the Storm was able to dent the goal.

"I thought we were playing really well and getting good passing and stuff, we just weren't able to finish it," Vedrine said. "They had great cover on the outside, but once we figured out that we had to make diagonal runs, it worked out much better."

The victory pushed South Elgin to a 13-8-1 mark, the best girls soccer record in the short history of the program and advanced the Storm to Tuesday's contest against Crystal Lake South at Jacobs.

Larkin (1-19-1) was fortunate that its best player was tending goal, as Hernandez made a series of spectacular goals and withstood a heavy barrage of six corner kicks in the second half alone.

"Our defense has been strong all year, and I think Dianna in the net has been our best player all year," Larkin coach Ken Hall said. "The effort is there, and we never fault our team for lack of effort.

"We're getting better and see improvement every game. We're very young, and we kept it close today, and had our chances."

South Elgin had defeated Larkin 5-1 in Upstate Eight Conference action last week, so Hall was pleased with the regional effort.

Disher is looking forward to the next round of action.

"I don't think the score today was indicative of how well the ladies played today," Disher said. "The footwork, the crossing passes, everything we have been working on, we did well today."