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Girls soccer: West Chicago cruises past East Aurora

The momentum East Aurora's girls soccer team gained the day before, West Chicago stole right back on Friday.

The Wildcats led 2-0 just over three minutes into the game, scored a third goal nine minutes later and won 5-0 at home in their Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division opener. East Aurora (1-6, 0-1) could not follow up its win Thursday over Rosary.

West Chicago (3-5, 1-0) was awarded a free kick 1 minute, 11 seconds into the game. Jessie Maldonado lined a left-to-right laser over leaping Tomcats goalkeeper Daisy Quinonez for a 1-0 lead.

"I felt relieved, but I wasn't too comfortable, I wanted to score more in order for me to settle down," Maldonado said.

Coming right up. At 36:57 Maddie Aguilar put in a rebound.

"I was like, all right, let's see what happens," said Aguilar, like Maldonado a senior. "So I just stuck my foot in and slowly it went in."

Nothing slow about Maldonado's boots. Playing much of the first half in East Aurora's defensive third, West Chicago drew another penalty at 27:56. Maldonado drove this free kick off Quinonez's gloves into the upper right-hand corner for a 3-0 lead the Wildcats took into halftime.

"That's a good player, that's a good team," said East Aurora coach Obed Mendoza. "We saw they are having a hard time, too - but they are having a hard time with pretty strong teams. It was really nice to play a team like this."

Mendoza nearly converted a third free kick 46 seconds later, but Quinonez deflected that off the crossbar, one of her 6 first-half saves.

"I was trying to kick them to the sides because those are the hardest places for a goalie to stop the ball," Maldonado said. "The good thing is I managed to focus ... I had a position in my head on the goal, where to kick it, and it got there."

Mendoza's halftime adjustments paid off in ball possession, but despite a couple chances by senior Bianca Esparza, then successive Esparza corner kicks the Tomcats couldn't solve West Chicago keeper Emma Gaggioli.

West Chicago scored twice in the last 5:03. A long Grace Ramirez pass skipped over a Tomcats defender, Karen Ibarra tracking it down and converting. Alexa Vega capped a strong game by curling in a sharp-angle shot from 25 yards out.

Wildcats coach Cesar Gomez tweaked positions and alignments to start the game and during it as well.

"We played, I would say, all 11 people in different positions, so it's new for them. For Jessie Maldonado, that's the first time she's gone to midfield. She scored 2 goals. Those are bright spots," Gomez said.

"Playing different people in different positions, you're finding out that it's not a problem, but it's a challenge, and they're coming through it, so that's nice to see."

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