Warriors use big second half outburst to defeat Joliet West

 

 

By Curt Herron

After seeing his squad not perform as well as expected in the first half, Jeff Theiss needed to stress some things to them at the halftime break.

While the Lincoln-Way West coach didn't give a motivational speech for the ages, it's pretty clear that what he told his team was very effective.

That's because the Warriors responded to a 1-0 halftime lead with a burst of three goals within a two-minute span shortly after the intermission.

After host Joliet West got one goal back, the Warriors collected three more scores to capture a 7-1 nonconference victory in Joliet on Thursday.

Emily Wyskiel had a hat trick following the three-goal flurry and Cori Brennan equaled that feat a short time later to lead the 5-1-1 Warriors.

Freshman Bri Darlage scored her initial goal during the closing moments of play while six different players handed out assists for the winners.

Wyskiel led the way with a pair of assists while Jenna Serrano, Kara Winans, Natalie Tannura, Lea Gindville and Brennan also helped out on goals.

"In order to progress we have to stop taking steps backwards," Theiss said. "But in the girls' defense, I'm moving a lot of people around and we have young players who are new to our program and the system. We keep stressing doing the small things and that's where some of the frustration sets in.

"There's a lack of communication on the field and we're disorganized in the back at times and letting balls drop in the middle of the field. We're trying to fix those small things first and the rest of it will come. We need to stress the mental aspects and make sure we're prepared to step on the field.

"I don't care what the final result is, we have to play to our potential. What it comes down to is that we're looking to get better every day and I think we saw that in the second half. When you do the small things, the big things are going to come. It's early in the season but we know that we can get better.

"I gave the seniors the option of what they want to do on Friday and they said that they want to train and that's what a coach wants to hear. But that's the type of group that we have. We saw the growth last year and it's going to be fun to watch the growth this year. We're excited to see where we take this."

Brennan started the second half scoring when Wyskiel sent her a pass and she got free for a 1 v 1 and fired in an attempt in the 43rd minute.

Less than half a minute later, Serrano found Wyskiel, whose try just sailed under the crossbar to give the Warriors a three-goal advantage.

Wyskiel completed her hat trick in the 45th minute when she took a pass from Winans and sent a liner that found the net to complete the burst.

Joliet West experienced its lone offensive highlight a bit later when keeper Kayla Lojas was unable to stop a short try after a Tiger got free.

The Warriors struck again in the 52nd minute after Wyskiel sent a pass to Brennan, whose try deflected off of the keeper and went into the net.

About 20 minutes after that, Brennan capped her hat trick with a short liner that just slipped inside of the post, off of a pass from Tannura.

With just 16 seconds remaining, Darlage got her first high school goal, following a pass forward from Lea Gindville, to conclude the scoring.

"At halftime we were told that we needed to start picking up the pace," Darlage said. "When we took the field again, everybody went out and attacked. We've been working on things in practice and they're finally starting to click. We have to possess from the back and move the ball up and good things will happen.

"It felt good to get my first goal out of the way since it's been there but I just haven't been able to finish. Everyone on this team gets along and we all encourage each other to do our best. And when we aren't playing our best, we all pick up each other."

Although the visitors had plenty of chances before the break, they came up a bit high or wide on many of the efforts and only scored one goal.

That came in the tenth minute when Brennan sent a pass to Wyskiel, who fired in a liner from about 25 yards out to put her team up for good.

The Tigers also had a few threats but Gindville cleared one try and Lojas deflected away another as the visitors maintained their 1-0 lead.

Some of the Warriors' best first half threats came in the late going. Brennan got things started with a long run that led to a deflection.

Wyskiel's initial corner kick eventually went to Kendall Watson, whose attempt was deflected. Her next corner was lined to the Tiger keeper.

Beside Darlage, there are four other freshman performers on the Warriors' 20-player roster, which also includes four sophomore players.

Freshman Bri Heyer shares Darlege's excitement about their team's start this season and is looking forward to how much they can progress.

"We all knew that we didn't play our best in the first half and that we had to step it up in the second half in order to secure the win," Heyer said. "Our forwards were getting frustrated but they didn't put their heads down. We scored three goals in the first few minutes and that really got our team pumped up.

"This team has bonded a lot and we've had a party or two. Also the weather is starting to get better so we're going to be able to do more in practice. One of the things that I like is that the players on this team never put their heads down and they're always looking up and pushing each other to do their best."

The Warriors play at Rich South on Saturday, host Sandburg on Wednesday and travel to Bolingbrook on Thursday in their next three matches.