Girls soccer: Batavia blanks Lake Park

Batavia senior Jimena Garcia chose to honor her English teacher during Thursday's Teacher Appreciation Night for helping her get through a tough stretch.

These days Garcia and the Bulldogs are going through a good one, winning their third straight with a 4-0 victory over Lake Park in DuKane action.

"I chose Mr. (Tom) O'Reilly who has been my English teacher for two years and my junior year soccer coach," she said. "In all my years playing soccer he's the one who pushed me through, got me through a rough time and brought my soccer career back up to where I was giving myself hope."

Batavia (4-2, 1-1) jumped ahead 3-0 after one half, receiving a pair of goals from speedy senior Laila Figueras.

"With our pace up top it's really easy to find through balls," Figueras said. "We did get good chances and thankfully we finished a lot of those tonight."

Lake Park (3-6, 0-3) especially struggled in containing Figueras and sophomore Addison Solomon, who would score with 33:07 left to complete the scoring.

"They got a good first goal when we were caught off lacking with our marking," Lancers coach Caroline Kilrea said. "And they've got that fast forward (Figueras) who flew right past us and (Solomon) as well. And they were able to put it in the back of the net."

While they themselves were limited in creating chances, the Lancers still competed.

"We're definitely in a rough patch right now with the (8-0 losses to St. Charles East and St. Charles North), but we came out and fought hard," Kilrea said. "We took the corrections that we needed to make these past two games and applied them. Obviously, we have some work to do, but they worked hard and gave Batavia a run for their money at some point."

Abi Edwards scored midway through the first half, finishing fellow junior Brooke Carlson's cross that caromed off the crossbar to make it 2-0.

"We had a lot of good chances," Edwards said. "Everyone on our team has been giving it 100% especially in the attacking third. I think that's where we're at. We're really pounding down teams on the attack."

Since a tough 2-1 loss to Wheaton North one week ago, the Bulldogs are rolling.

"I think the team is just bonding together so well right now and getting closer and closer every single game," Garcia said. "Our team chemistry is getting there."