Szostak sizzling as Warren wins again

Speed and quickness can be an important element of a team's offensive attack, and Warren's girls soccer team lost several talented players with those traits from last year's squad.

But Ellen Szostak has quickly stepped forward to be a leading scorer for the Blue Devils.

She scored a goal and assisted on another while Teagon Albert and Sangjun Hornewer had the others in Warren's 3-2 victory over Carmel Catholic in Thursday's nonconference match in Gurnee.

Szostak leads the Blue Devils (3-1) with 5 goals in four games.

"It's how quickly you can go one-vs-one," said Szostak, who moved into a starting role this year as a junior. "It's how I can pick up my speed and get ahead of my defender. That's how it stands out."

She showed her quickness in the 66th minute of play.

With Warren holding a 2-1 advantage over Carmel (2-1-1), Szostak's pressure on the defense caused havoc as she snuck the ball away to create an opportunity and put the ball into the back of the net. That gave the Blue Devils a comfortable 2-goal lead.

"It was a great win for us," said Warren coach Ryan McCabe, whose team had beaten Zion-Benton on Tuesday 11-0. "We came out strong in the first half and caught them off guard.

"The girls were focused and did a good job. Carmel was a good team and came back fighting. I thought the game was a good, healthy rivalry."

Warren's Albert scored the opening goal in the 15th minute after taking a slot pass from Szostak.

The Blue Devils found another goal in the 29th minute as Hornewer netted a scored off Albert's cross for a 2-0 halftime lead.

Carmel made some adjustments and worked itself back into the match in the second half.

Riley Harmon cut the lead in half 2-1 with an unassisted goal in the 56th minute.

"At halftime, we had planned on changing things and some of those changes definitely worked," said Carmel Catholic coach Ray Krawzak. "We had good changes in the second half for us but it was a little too late."

Warren pushed the lead to 3-1 on Szostak's unassisted goal.

Carmel's Erin Johnston added a late goal off a free kick assist from Ali Cepon.

"Our girls have put in the time to practice to what we need to do in games," McCabe said.