Girls soccer: Huntley off to solid start in FVC

One way of beating teams is to not allow them any shots.

Huntley was downright greedy against McHenry on Tuesday with a 2-0 victory. Huntley then won again Thursday, 3-1 over Crystal Lake South, improving to 7-4-2 overall and 3-1 in the Fox Valley Conference.

On Tuesday, the Red Raiders didn't surrender a single shot by the Warriors while producing 30 shots themselves including 23 on goal.

Morgan Alpert and Alyssa Xanos scored for Huntley, which isn't relying on just one or two players to finish things on the offensive end.

"We have so many people capable of scoring so there's not one set way to score," Huntley coach Matthew Lewandowski said. "We probably have 15 different ways right now so we have a lot of options and we're seeing that."

Alyssa Xanos (6 goals, 3 assists) and Avery Fitzgerald (6 goals, 6 assists) are the team's leading offensive threats, but the Red Raiders are not limited to just those two dangerous weapons as 11 of their players have scored a goal this spring.

"They're putting up the big numbers and both have the goal of being our top scorer," Lewandowski said. "They're best friends so I'm fine with that competition, but I think what they learned was that early on they were trying so hard to finish that they were forcing things through and then they realized that they don't have to be the one to always score, they can set it up for somebody else, and often the opportunities will come back around."

Having lost so few players from last year's squad, the Red Raiders expected to be competitive this season and are seeing that success now.

"We've kind of picked up where we left off," Lewandowski said. "Everyone knows everybody and there are a couple new faces, but things seemed to be working well."

Prairie Ridge, which went undefeated in the Fox Valley Conference a season ago, is talented once again, but already has shown it isn't invincible. The Wolves lost 2-0 to Crystal Lake Central on Apr. 16 to drop to 8-1-1 overall and 1-1 in conference.

Cary-Grove's lone conference loss last spring came at the hands of Prairie Ridge. The Trojans cruised past Crystal Lake South, 6-0, on Apr. 16 to boost their record to 6-1-1 overall and 2-0 in conference. The Trojans were conference champions in 2015.

Jacobs took away some of the joyous feeling that Hampshire was enjoying after it ended its lengthy conference losing streak as the Golden Eagles blanked the Whip-Purs, 7-0, on Apr. 16.

The Golden Eagles improved to 7-6-1 and 1-1 in conference.

"We're getting into the heart of our season of conference games that truly matter," Jacobs interim head coach Colin Brice said. "We really had struggled early on where we'd out-possess teams but couldn't find the back of the net, but now we've started to find it."

Jacobs was beaten by Cary Grove twice last year including in a sectional semifinal.

"They brought back a lot of girls and have a couple of players now who are back to play their senior year," Brice said. "So we know they're going to be extremely competitive, and Prairie Ridge should be pretty solid."

Dundee-Crown (4-5, 0-2) remains winless in conference as a couple of key injuries have proved difficult to overcome.

"We had two unexpected injuries occur prior to when we played Prairie Ridge and Huntley," Chargers coach Sebastian Falinski said. "I think results would have been much different if the two players were in the lineup."

The Chargers lost their top forward, Berkley Mensik, to an ACL knee injury while goalkeeper Diana Santillan has been out due to a concussion but is expected back by next week.

Crystal Lake South has struggled so far at 3-7-1 overall and 1-1 in conference. The Gators are vying for their seventh consecutive winning season and once postseason arrives will be trying to win a fourth straight regional.

While all conference games are big ones, there are some especially huge ones looming in coming weeks. Jacobs goes to Huntley and also hosts Prairie Ridge next week while Cary-Grove makes the trek to Jacobs on May 2 and then goes to Prairie Ridge on May 7.

Party time for Hampshire: "Gangnam Style" hadn't yet topped the music charts all over the world when Hampshire had last won a game in the Fox Valley Conference.

The Whip-Purs were certainly stylin' when they broke a long drought of conference losses on Apr. 15, beating McHenry, 6-1, for their first conference victory since 2012.

Veronica Walker scored five goals to lead the Whip-Purs. Kylie Brodkorb also scored. Lara Dulaca delivered three assists while Alessa Carranza, Alyssa Dimaano and Veronica Walker also had assists.

While their names weren't in the scoring column, Hampshire coach Javier Rojo also praised the play of Kortney Fairwood and Alana Hatanaka in the victory.

Two places at once: While it's possible to rush after the buzzer sounds in next Tuesday's St. Charles North at St. Charles East game to catch the end of Geneva at Batavia, it's not practical for even the biggest area die-hard high school soccer fan.

It's unfortunate to have to choose between which one to watch as both should be doozies. The game at Batavia is scheduled to start at 7 p.m., a half-hour later then the rematch at St. Charles East at 6:30 as the two teams recently met in the championship game of the St. Charles Rose Augsburg Drach Soccer Invitational with the North Stars rallying for a 2-1 victory.

The North Stars have tied or beaten the Saints in every meeting between the two schools since 2005, except for when the Saints prevailed 2-1 in the sectional semifinal in 2014 and proceeded to be the state runner-up in Class 3A.

The rivalry between the Vikings and Bulldogs has certainly outlived their conference memberships as they've gone from the Little Seven to the Suburban Prairie to the Western Sun to the Upstate Eight to the DuKane.

"Geneva is always a good team to play," Batavia senior Zaira Solis said. "We just need to have the right mindset and pull our weight and if everyone does their part it can be a close game and we're hoping to win."

Unlike the St. Charles schools, this rivalry hasn't been dominated by one team either in recent years. The teams have both won and lost twice and also tied once, last year, during the past five seasons. Geneva does own bragging rights if you go back a little further, compiling a 4-2-3 record since 2010.

Both games will certainly be big ones in the DuKane Conference race.

"That might change out some things in the conference," Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco said. "It might settle some things here or there after that night."

Big challenges for Bartlett: Bartlett was scheduled to play Barrington, ranked No. 1 in the latest Daily Herald Top 20, on Thursday. The schedule continues to challenge the Hawks, as they've recently dropped tough 1-0 games to No. 2. St. Charles North and No. 14 Glenbard East.

The Hawks (4-5-2) have dropped five of their last six, but they're battling.

"It's good news and bad news," Bartlett coach Vince Revak said. "It proves that you're competing and the outcome might be different with one bounce the other way, but at the same point it's frustrating that we're that close and just couldn't finish. We've really only had one bad loss, and that was Batavia, and we still learned from it and were actually tied at half."

The key thing is that Bartlett is a better team now than it was when the season started so now they're trying to turn their growth into more success in outcomes.

"We have an interesting squad with a group of seniors and a group of freshmen all picking up more confidence and getting more used to each other," Revak said. "Replacing about half our starters has taken some time to get going, and we've had an unlucky skid the last week and a half, but some of these losses are good losses because we looked very good but were just missing that final piece."

This and that: Rachel Martini had quite the week for St. Edward. The junior midfielder scored 12 goals and contributed a pair of assists in three victories. She had 25 goals last year.

St. Charles East received some disappointing news this week as Emma Blankenship, who suffered a knee injury in the championship game of St. Charles Rose Augsburg Drach Soccer Invitational on Apr. 6, is done for the season. Coach Vince DiNuzzo confirmed that the ACL injury will cut short her senior year.

Kaneland coach Scott Parillo acknowledged that it took seven years for the Knights to get into a tournament in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., and weather resulted in its cancellation the weekend of Apr. 12-13. Although it won't be rescheduled this year, the Knights hope to go next year.

Jacobs will be playing in a PepsiCo Showdown championship game against Mother McAuley on May 5 at the Lyons Soccer Complex in LaGrange.

Huge props to Bartlett senior Paige Bednarke who was under concussion protocol earlier this month and then involved in a car accident the same week. Talk about a rough few days. Good news though for Bednarke and the Hawks as she's healthy and back playing at a high level.