Girls soccer: Stephens boots West Aurora past East Aurora

To her West Aurora teammates, she is known simply as "Kat."

But Katharine Stephens was not very friendly to her archrivals from the other side of Aurora.

The West Aurora junior scored twice and assisted Anahi Toscano on another goal to power the Blackhawks' girls soccer team to a 5-1 victory over East Aurora Saturday afternoon at West High.

West Aurora (4-2) can capture its four-team Blackhawk Tournament with a win over Rosary Wednesday evening.

East Aurora (1-7) averted the shutout in the final three minutes when Jacky Cabrera had a sliding goal off a Paola Segundo feed.

Under brutally difficult conditions, West Aurora had several gorgeous goals to dominate the match.

Stephens' second first-half goal - with less than nine minutes to play before the intermission - gave West Aurora a commanding 3-0 lead.

The East Aurora keeper had no chance as Stephens' opposite-foot blast from an assist from fellow forward Marlene Sanchez snaked in perfectly under the cross bar.

The West Aurora girls have scored 12 goals in their two tournament wins.

"This is probably the worst conditions I have ever played in," Stephens said. "We have been the better team in both (tournament matches). We played better than both of the other teams."

Jessica Ortiz made the assist on Stephens' match-opening goal, and the Blackhawks' lead was doubled midway through the first half when Sanchez found the back of the Tomcats' net.

"(I told the girls) that if they are wide open, shoot the ball," West Aurora coach Laura Wagley said of the Blackhawks' dozen goals in their last two matches. "Be selfish."

Toscano upped the Blackhawks' spread to four goals with her collaboration with Stephen two-plus minutes into the second half.

"I think it's my second (goal of the season)," Toscano said. "I just saw Kat hit the ball and I made a hard drive."

The Blackhawks' final goal was equally majestic.

Ortiz lobbed a perfect corner kick with 13-plus minutes remaining; Jocelyn Ferrer once again gave the Tomcats' keeper no hope of stopping her subsequent header.

For the overwhelming majority of the match, the finest chances East Aurora manufactured came via free kicks.

But the Tomcats, who earned their first win with a shutout over Rosary in first-round action, broke through with 2:10 remaining.

"I just slid in and tackled (the ball) into the goal," Cabrera said of her score off the Segundo assist.