Girls Soccer: St Edward tops Elgin Academy, wins own tourney
Updated: April 14, 2012 9:38PM
It was a perfect ending to a perfect weekend as host St. Edward defeated Elgin Academy 3-0 in the final round of the St. Edward Invite on Saturday afternoon.
The Green Wave won all four of its games in the two-day tournament featuring four 40-minute games against each team. The Wave outscored its opponents by a combined 11-0 to take first place in the five-team field.
The Wave had a 4-0 win over Westminster Christian earlier Saturday. On Friday, St. Edward defeated Harvest Christian 4-0 and Streamwood 1-0. Paige Gannon and Paige Dystra were in goal for the four shutouts for the Wave.
“I think it is a fun tournament,” said St. Edward coach Tim Brieger. “It gives a lot of the small local schools a chance to play one another, plus we have Elgin Academy and Westminster in our regional so it is a little bit of a preview for that. I also like the fact we get to go up against a bigger school like Streamwood. I thought we played tough team defense all four games. We just did a good job of getting back and working in tandem.”
The Green Wave had a 9-2 shot advantage in the tournament-clinching win over Elgin Academy. Freshman Chelsea Gnan had all three goals in the win, scoring the first less than five minutes in and then adding a pair in the second half. She leads the Green Wave with eight goals on the season.
“She is an outstanding player,” said Brieger. “A combo of speed and ball handling with a nose for the goal.”
The biggest win of the tournament for St. Edward probably came in the second game on Friday when it was able to sneak out a 1-0 win against Streamwood.
Monica Ramirez scored on a volley from 18 yards out from Corey Lepoudre with just over seven minutes to play.
Streamwood rebounded from the defeat to win all three of its games on Saturday to finish second in the tournament. The Sabres had wins of 3-0 over Westminster, 2-0 against Elgin Academy and 4-0 versus Harvest Christian. Stephanie Brown had a pair of goals for Streamwood. Tawny Carrol added a header in the final game.
“I thought we played well the entire tournament even (Friday) night when we lost,” said Streamwood coach Matt Polovin. “St. Edward has a tough team. I liked the way we stepped it up today. We needed some wins to build our confidence back up. The defense as a whole unit played great. I especially thought Charice Ellenwood, our sweeper, did a real nice job of cleaning everything up.”
Elgin Academy and Westminster Christian each finished the tournament with a win. The Hilltoppers defeated Harvest Christian 2-0. Ashley Barnes scored both goals. Westminster’s win came against Elgin Academy 3-2 on Friday.
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