Benet wins ninth straight

It's hard to find a flaw in the Benet girls soccer team.

The Redwings won their ninth straight game with a 3-0 victory against a Wheaton Academy team that was riding a three-game winning streak.

"We've played some very consistent soccer," Benet coach Bob Gros said. "We're playing as a cohesive, organized soccer team with this scheme. … We have possession, we have a great scheme offensively. We're flooding the field with flank players, we always outnumber them and I have very talented back line people. … It's not just one thing or the other its this whole group really together."

From the start Benet (9-0-1) put pressure on the Warriors. A couple of half-chances from sophomore Ellie Bumpus had the Redwings on the attack, but it was junior Loretta Elder to open the scoring.

After a bouncing ball caused havoc for the Wheaton Academy defense, Elder took a half-volley, placing the ball in the upper right corner of the net to give her team at 1-0 lead in the 10th minute.

Ten minutes later Elder was at it again.

Elder took a pass from Claire Elenteny and had a low strike from 18 yards out.

"I dribbled around a girl and had an open shot and it's wet out here so I just had to take the shot and it skipped right in," Elder said.

Wheaton Academy (5-3-1) didn't even have luck on its side.

In the 36th minute Benet captain Michelle Morefield hit a long low shot that deflected off Wheaton Academy defender Britta Cassel.

The Warriors went in at halftime down 3-0, and even though the score held Wheaton Academy came out in the second half and battled.

The Warriors had much more 50-50 wins but could only muster one offensive chance. They were turned away from a nice save from Benet junior goalkeeper Emma Hlavin.

"Their 4-3-3, it's fantastic. They play it to near perfection," said Warriors coach Dave Underwood. "(We made) simple, silly mistakes …. You can't afford to make mistakes against a team of that caliber in the back third and expect to come out with a good result."

Benet continues to roll, picking it up its ninth shutout, which helps set the tone for the offense.

"We definitely have a strong defensive back to support our offensive attack," Elder said. "We've played with each other for a while now and we kind of work really well together to form a strong attack."