Girls soccer: St. Charles East gets by Schaumburg
St. Charles East girls soccer coach Vince DiNuzzo admits that his team needs to improve its game in the final third of the field.
However, as long as the Saints continue their winning ways, DiNuzzo's patience will remain intact.
St. Charles East (5-1-2) opened the first round of its annual Rose Augsburg Drach Tournament with a 1-0 victory over Schaumburg (3-2) Wednesday afternoon at frigid Norris Stadium.
Senior midfielder Alessia D'Argento scored the game's only goal 9 minutes into the second half as she converted a rebound a few moments after Saxons goalkeeper Livvy Masi had stopped Saints senior forward Rose Stackhouse from point-blank range.
"We just kind of needed to take all of our chances and try to execute on them as much as we could," said D'Argento. "I thought that throughout the game we started to make more runs and find open players. We started to gel together as a team."
Masi, a junior, kept the Saxons in the game with 10 saves, including a pair of quality stops in the second half.
She made a diving save of D'Argento's left-footed shot midway through the second half and punched Kayla Villa's 20-yard blast just over the crossbar with a little more than 11 minutes remaining.
"Their goalie made a few great saves," said DiNuzzo. "I thought they were very organized defensively. We just couldn't find the back of the net today."
That has been a recurring theme for the Saints, who have managed just 18 goals in 8 games - and 9 of those goals were scored in victories over Plainfield North (5-1) and Elgin (4-0).
"We've got to find sources of goals but we're finding ways to win and that's what matters," said DiNuzzo. "We need to get used to winning.
"We'll be all right. I think we're going to find some ways to score."
Not helping matters is the fact that the Saints have been besieged by injuries.
Against Schaumburg, Saints senior midfielder Kathryn Hill suffered an apparent left leg injury with 8:11 remaining and never returned.
"It's just finding healthy bodies - we're dropping like flies," said DiNuzzo. "Kat has been playing awesome for us. She has six assists on the season so it's tough to lose a playmaker. I hope it's nothing but we'll just have to wait and see."
Junior goalkeeper Grace Griffin recorded 3 saves for the Saints, who notched their fifth shutout of the young season.
"We have an outstanding pair in the center backs with Alondra (Carranza) and Hayley (Popiel)," said DiNuzzo. "I haven't seen two center backs better than them and we have a freshman in Hannah Miller who is outstanding. We also have Megan Stout, another freshman on the outside, and (freshman) Lindsey (Rzeszutko) is very capable, too."
Schaumburg's best offensive chances included Al Schaar's 25-yard shot that caromed off the crossbar late in the first half.
"It was a good soccer game today," said Saxons coach Greg Charvat. "Both teams had a lot of chances. They capitalized on the one mistake that we made.
"I'm proud of our girls. This is a tough tournament with some great teams. Being competitive is important and I thought we were real competitive tonight."