Girls soccer: Maine West shuts out Rolling Meadows
It's two wins in two games for Maine West's girls soccer team.
Dylan Van Fleet scored twice to give her five on the season, while the Warriors' back line, led by captain Sarah Magnoni and Skylar Kustra, kept visiting Rolling Meadows out of its net to record a 4-0 victory Monday afternoon in Des Plaines.
"This was a very good team win for us today," said Warriors head coach Jeff Bishop, whose club thrashed Wheeling, 7-0 in its season opener last week.
"Rolling Meadows comes from a very good soccer conference, and we haven't been able to beat them of late, so this is the type of victory we can use as to build from as we go forward."
Van Fleet would get the home side off to a flying start when she beat keeper Leticia Avellaneda after Melissa Gomez put her teammate through just two minutes into this nonconference match.
"Dylan had three against Wheeling, while Melissa scored two and assisted on three others to really help our attack get going against Wheeling," said Bishop.
A nice build up started by Kustra along the back that saw Maddie Roppel, Gomez, then Vanessa Reyes all have a touch nearly had the Warriors (2-0-0) double their advantage two minutes later.
"I thought we played some pretty good soccer in our first two games, especially in our 2-0 win over Normal West but our overall effort today wasn't anything near what we've had previously," said a disappointed Mike Drenth, Meadows' head coach. "I don't know what to say except that I know we can be so much better than we were today."
The visitor's best chances came from senior Alexa Davis who in the first half, when Drenth had her deployed as a forward, was dangerous nearly each time she was on the ball.
Davis would force Leslee Ordonez into action with three very good looks on frame, all of which required the Warriors' keeper to save in order to keep Davis scoring.
The Warriors added another at 23 minutes when Van Fleet roared up the right side, whipped a quality attempt toward the back post where Claudia Kadzielawa finished with a sublime touch.
The start of what would be a dominating second half of play began with Greta Martin driving her unstoppable 30-yard blast into the upper left corner sixty seconds into the second period.
"Our teamwork, ability to play the ball wide, and to have our forwards give our opponents a lot of pressure up top are just a couple of things we've done very well in our first two games," said Magnani.
"We're without one of our defensive starters, so we moved Skylar into the back on the outside and she has been just fantastic in that role for us so far," said Bishop of the senior who is a four-year veteran at both soccer and cross-country.
Van Fleet added to the score line one last time in the 80th minute with a short-range blast.
"We have a lot of work to do, and it's real early in the season, but just as we did during the basketball season, we want to build a winning spirit and culture to soccer and just build from it," said Van Fleet, who was a key player in the Warriors' recent run to a Class 4A state girls basketball championship.