Girls Soccer: Elyse Janosz celebrates Sandburg win in style

Updated: May 4, 2012 8:46PM

On her 18th birthday Friday night, Sandburg’s Elyse Janosz was everywhere early on against Plainfield Central.

Her gifts? A goal and an assist within the first eight minutes of the match.

The Eagles went on to a 3-1 win in the opening round of the Lemont Cup.

“It felt so good to get an early lead,” Janosz said. “It was a good day.”

Sioban Mulvey also had a goal and an assist for the Eagles (9-4-4), who will meet the host Indians in Saturday’s semifinals

Four minutes in, Janosz took a pass from Mulvey just outside the box and sent a shot into the far corner of the net to give the Eagles the lead.

“I just saw the pass and saw the shot was wide open to the far corner,” Janosz said. “We’ve been working on limiting our touches and we did a good job doing that.”

Three minutes later, Janosz crushed a shot from the middle of the box that Wildcats goalie Tiffany Lenza knocked down, but Mulvey was there to tap in the rebound.

“It was nice to see Elyse shooting,” Sandburg coach Desi Vuillaume said. “We’ve been working with her on turning and shooting and she did it. She played great.

“It was senior night (Thursday) and it was a close one (a 1-0 win over Lincoln-Way East), so it was good to get a quick lead and give some girls some rest.”

The Eagles delivered the dagger early in the second half off a corner kick as Mulvey’s cross went off the hands of Lenza and was batted into the open net by Carly Katalinic with 25:18 to go.

Plainfield Central (11-7-1) broke the shutout with 5:04 left. Eagles goalie Nicole Kulovitz (three saves) made a leaping stop of a Maddie Conroy shot, but Payton Woodall poked in the rebound.

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