Girls Soccer: Corrine Harris scores four, powers Payton past Lincoln Park

Updated: May 5, 2012 5:21PM

Corrine Harris makes it pretty easy to assess her value to Payton.

The Grizzlies are unbeaten with her in the lineup.

The star senior forward scored four goals and assisted another to power the Grizzlies past Lincoln Park 6-0 in a Public League tournament quarterfinal Saturday morning at Rockne Stadium.

Payton advances to play Young in semifinals Tuesday at Lane Stadium.

“You can’t give her an inch,” Lincoln Park coach Hilliard Blank said, “or she is going to take advantage and get by you. If you let her get an open shoulder, she’s going to score. Against other Public League teams that don’t have as much talent, you can make mistakes and it won’t cost you.

“Not against her.”

Harris scored three goals and assisted junior forward Veronica Nowack to propel the Grizzlies (11-6-2) to a 4-0 lead at the intermission. Harris said she is nearly fully recovered from complications of an enlarged spleen that caused her to miss six games. Payton lost all six of the games that she missed.

After scoring four goals against Bogan on Monday in pool play, Harris played limited minutes against Hubbard on Wednesday. “Hubbard was a difficult game, and I was still getting my strength and endurance back,” she said. “Today, I felt great, and I was really encouraged by the energy I had.”

Harris nearly equaled her career-best five goals in one game. Playing just 13 games, Harris has scored a remarkable 27 goals and added 10 assists. Payton is 11-0-2 in the games she has played.

She played limited minutes in the second half, scoring her fourth goal on a deflected ball at the 45th minute mark. Just her presence creates multiple opportunities. “She’s a great distributor and she gives everybody a boost of confidence, especially when she can come out and just get a quick goal like she did today,” senior forward Mackenzie Trumble said.

Trumble closed out the scoring with her own rebound shot.

Harris is back with the Grizzlies’ program after playing club soccer the last two years. She is trying to lead Payton to a repeat city championship they captured her freshman year. “We have a lot of good seniors, who were part of that team and we talked about doing what we have to in order to get back,” she said.

The Lions (6-10-3) managed only two shots on goal.

© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.