Girls soccer: Barrington pitches a shutout against Prospect
Barrington will head into its most important match of the girls soccer season on Saturday against longtime Mid-Suburan West Fremd with a perfect 6-0-0 record after its impressive 5-0 victory over Prospect Wednesday night in the rain at Barrington Community Stadium.
Five different Fillies (7-1-0, 6-0-0) would score including freshman Piper Lucier, who had a hand in the two first-half goals, as well as senior Riley Raynor, whose fabulous finish in the 48th minute took the air out of the Knights (5-3-1, 2-2-1), who are looking to keep pace with MSL East leaders Hersey and Rolling Meadows.
"Even though we have so many new young players on our roster this season the work rate and energy everyone has shown thus far has really helped make this team a very good one, but we all know there's a lot more work ahead of us," said Raynor, the lone holdover from the 2019 Class 3A state runner-up team.
"We had a very good first 20 minutes. In fact, our overall play in the first half was very good as well. I am happy with the way the team is coming together, but we feel we can get to an even higher level if we continue to put the work in," said Fillies coach Ryan Stengren.
Sophomore Kaitlin Taylor hit the opener in the 26th minute, thanks in part to some trickery by Lucier, who in the 33rd minute doubled the Fillies' advantage when she stormed to the end line, beat her challenger and in doing so, drew keeper Lily Barich off her line, leaving an empty net available.
"Lily saved us a couple of times in the first half to help keep us in the game, but Barrington is efficient in the way they play. They possess the ball very well, defend well as a team and each year they always seem to play at a higher level than the rest of us," said Prospect coach Tom Froats, whose club will host Buffalo Grove next Wednesday night.
Raynor would collect a ball on the left side, move past two players, then fire in a left-footed shot from 22 yards eight minutes into the second half.
Kathleen Baker added another to the scoresheet three minutes later just over Knights keeper Sarah Bradbury, before Sarah Sarnowski would tee up her 35-yard blistering effort to finish the scoring in the 68th minute.
Kayley Bouzas worked hard in the middle of the park for the Knights as did Mia D'onofrio, who earned praise from Froats for her effort coming off the bench.
"Despite the loss, there was still plenty of fight and energy from the girls right up until the final whistle, which is something we appreciate and will build from going forward," said Froats.