Girls soccer: South Elgin dispatches rival Larkin 4-1
| Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
Updated: March 20, 2012 10:08PM
South Elgin soccer coach Tiffany Disher gave her players some homework and they bounced back from a loss to Jacobs with high marks in a 4-1 nonconference victory over Larkin Tuesday at Memorial Field.
“I told them to watch a Premier League match or some other match and write me a paragraph on the players at their position and what they did,” Disher said. “The thing about high school girls soccer is not enough of the players watch the game and they can benefit from that.”
The goal was to get better spacing and passing, and the result was some good long passes.
“I read the best four to the team; it seems like we have some potential budding coaches in the group,” Disher added.
Whether or not it was the homework or just talent, the Storm came out on the attack and didn’t stop while improving to 2-1 on the year.
Caitlan Lange found a breakdown in Larkin’s defense in close after Anna Tracy’s throw-in, and drilled a 15-yard kick past Larkin goalie Diana Hernandez 6:06 into the match. Savanah Uveges scored the next two goals, including the one on a header which gave the Storm a 2-0 edge with 24:47 left in the first half after taking a long pass from Andrea Walsh.
“Andrea Walsh was outside on defense,” Uveges said. “It was perfectly placed. Honestly, she really did most of the work. I just kind of got there.
“We do work on crosses in practice and have been trying to put them in. We really haven’t done the best job of it thus far in practice but we’re hoping to improve.”
Uveges’ next goal came on a rebound with 6:11 left in the first half after Hernandez first stopped two Storm shots from in close.
Hernandez had a strong night in net despite allowing those goals and one on a 35-yard frozen-rope kick to the top of the net by Lauren Vedrine. Hernandez made 19 saves while being constantly peppered.
“She’s been like that for four years,” Larkin coach Ken Hall said about Hernandez. “She’s a four-year starter. She’s been solid the whole time. She saves a lot of goals-against, there’s no question about that.”
Twice in the second half Hernandez stopped breakaways.
“She came out and did exactly what she’s supposed to do in those situations,” Hall said.
South Elgin substituted liberally and moved players around in the second half.
“We definitely have a full bench and everybody has a lot of talent,” Uveges said. “Skill-wise, it’s spread out evenly throughout the team. We can trust anyone and the best thing about the team is most players can play any position.”
Larkin (0-3) scored its first goal of the season when the Storm had a mental lapse on a corner kick by Rose Camarena that hugged the ground and snuck in along the near post.
“With our level of experience, we’ve been kind of concentrating more on defense and we haven’t worked a heck of a lot on offense,” Hall said.
Freshman Quixmia Washington displayed some nice speed on occasion, once getting in on a breakaway against winning goalie Jourdan Valkner, before kicking it over the crossbar.
“We were only down a goal against Jacobs at halftime and lost 5-0,” Disher said. “We fixed our weak spots on defense tonight.”
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