Girls soccer: Martini's 4 goals lead St. Edward over Harvest Christian
The IHSA doesn't award a girls soccer Player of the Week, but if it did, Rachel Martini would be deserving.
The St. Edward junior scored four times on Thursday to lead the Green Wave to a 5-1 victory over Harvest Christian.
Martini scored five goals in Monday's victory over Rosary and has scored nine goals already this week. She'll have another chance to add to that total at home on Saturday against Elgin Academy.
"This is only my third game because we haven't been fully healthy yet," Martini said. "We've gotten off to a bit of a rough start, but now we're getting there."
St. Edward (2-5) jumped on Harvest Christian with a pair of goals from Martini and one from Mia Castro to build a 3-0 lead at halftime.
"Katie (Ellsworth) played a nice ball into Rachel and laid it back to me," Castro said. "I took it from the top of the box. I've played with some of the Harvest girls from when I was younger in club and I know their goalie Maggie (D'Alessandro) and she was pretty decent in goal so it felt good to get one on her."
Castro assisted on two of Martini's scores as the two have become a formidable scoring combo as midfielders.
"Mia has a really good ability to get her head up and get the tight touch and play it over the top, but not too heavy and not too soft," Martini said. "She had her head up looking for me and Katie (Ellsworth) and we're really starting to click now."
Knowing that Martini can finish as well as she does, Castro knows the value of getting her teammate the ball for scoring opportunities.
"Rachel has great vision of the field," Castro said. "It's nice to have her and Katie to play it up to so I can possess and take it to the goal."
Harvest Christian (2-1-1) didn't quit, despite lacking the depth of the Green Wave and being down 3-0.
"The reality of the situation is we have a really small team and a lot of young players and players who haven't played before and St. Ed's is a solid program," Lions coach Morgan Lockwood said. "I told them at the beginning of the game that I just want you to not stop fighting the whole time. We gave them a good fight. We do have some tactical stuff to work on, but I'm proud of them."
The Lions were more dangerous in the final third of the field in the second half, and it finally paid off when senior Jen Matysek put them on the scoreboard, but the Green Wave responded with two more goals from Martini.
"I just remembered I have a solid kick and know that I can kick it from pretty much everywhere," Matysek said. "I saw the opening between the goalie and the post and just took it, curving it into the far post."
Matysek liked how her team fought for all 80 minutes.
"At halftime we had a big discussion about not giving up and to keep going," she said. "We just kept attacking the goal."
Winning is always nice, but it's more than scoring goals.
"My dad always hammered into me that athletics aren't about winning and losing, and not even about the sport itself, but it's about learning things you'll be able to use in the year's ahead," Lockwood said. "As a coach I want to have an impact on the girls and I'm obviously a competitor. It's rewarding to see them get excited for each other."