Vernon Hills’ double wins well worth the wait

The Vernon Hills girls soccer team waited to get on the field longer than it wanted.

It was worth it.

Due to the inclement weather, it had been 10 days since the Cougars’ last game. But they played twice Saturday and made the matches worthwhile. Their 4-0 shutout over visiting Waukegan gave them the championship of the Lakes tournament at Vernon Hills. The Cougars also picked up a 5-0 win over Woodstock North.

The tourney was split up between Vernon Hills and Lakes because of the weather, and the games were played with 30-minute halves.

Kristen Guglielmi contributed a pair of goals and assisted on another against Waukegan. Katherine Koczwara and Amy Andrea scored the other two goals.

Vernon Hills (5-3-1) is unbeaten over its last six games since starting the season with three straight losses.

“It was nice to come out scoring,” coach Vince DeLuca said. “This Waukegan team isn’t that bad. We just needed to finish, which we did in the second half. We’ve been going through practicing inside, practicing outside, canceling here and there. Our energy level was great. Sometimes we might have had too much energy.”

Koczwara scored the first Cougars goal off an assist from Guglielmi in the fifth minute. Guglielmi added goals in the second half at the 40-minute mark and again six minutes later. Kaitlin Gramins assisted on Guglielmi’s second goal. Andrea scored the other goal in the 54th minute.

“We have a lot of good players here,” said Guglielmi, who has 5 goals this season. “Our team is amazing. Everyone has something to offer, whether it’s making a hard run or crossing.”

Waukegan (6-6-2), which is much improved this year, made a good effort for 80 minutes.

“We were right in the game,” Waukegan coach Jose Fernandez said. “They figured out how to block us back from going forward. (Vernon Hills) knew how to pressure us and we took ourselves out of the game.”

Vernon Hills began the day by beating Woodstock North (1-6), getting a pair of goals each from Heidi VanderBloomer and Maddison Guillaume. Natalina Mariduena netted the other goal.

Antioch won the third-place match by edging Woodstock North 2-1.

Alex Fracek scored her 10th goal of the season for the Sequoits, and Kali Pope had the other tally. Fracek has moved up to the midfield from the back this year. She’s been a sweeper in the past.

“She’s very tough and hard to beat,” said coach Marni Polakow, whose Sequoits improved to 5-4-1. “She’s just learning (midfielder) on the fly.”

Antioch lost to Waukegan 2-0 earlier in the day.