Streamwood keeps rolling with win at Elgin
By Gary Larsen

One long throw-in, one flick at the goalmouth, and Streamwood was off and running.

The Sabres’ 6-0 win against rival Elgin featured four goals from Kim Jimenez and two from Tawny Carroll, and it all started with a throw-in from the corner flag on the right side by central defender Hannah McGlone.

“She’s such a tremendous athlete,” Streamwood coach Matt Polovin said of McGlone. “I’ve seen girls with a flip-throw that can do that, but she’s just all power. She has so much upper-body strength. It’s like another corner kick.”

Elgin fought hard through 10 minutes, pushing onto Streamwood’s half and handling the speed of Jimenez on the counter.

The McGlone-Jimenez combination broke the ice at 14 minutes, when Jimenez flicked McGlone’s long throw in off the far post to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.

Jimenez has been lighting up the scoreboard this year, with 18 goals in 12 games. And like every good, hungry goalscorer, she’s not satisfied.

“I wish I had more,” Jimenez said. “I’ve lost some opportunities to get some shots. I tend to get nervous so I just have to work on staying calm.

“But it feels good. My teammates have been giving me great passes and through-balls. Tawny (Carroll) and (Briana) Spike have been helping me a lot and my speed has helped a lot, too."

Jimenez broke behind the Elgin defense for her second goal on a feed from McGlone, and took a Carroll feed to the endline on the left side and hammered a ball in off the Elgin keeper at the near post for her third.

Jimenez added a fourth late in the contest, piercing the Elgin backline after Carroll won a ball near midfield and sent it ahead.

"Kim is one of those deceptive speedsters. She’s not blazing but she'll kind of put you to sleep and then when that ball is played through, she's gone," Polovin said. "And she has a knack for going to goal now, and that’s something we’ve been working with her on. She has speed and she has to work with that speed.

“Both she and Tawny have a lot of speed up there and can score. So if we can’t find one, usually the other one finds a way to get open. It’s nice because we don’t always have teams that can score five or six goals. They’re confident and they’re having fun out there.”

Carroll scored off an Erika Delgado assist in the first half, and Jimenez located a McGlone throw-in and set up Carroll’s second goal of the game, which gave Streamwood a 6-0 lead at 76 minutes.

Carroll has netted 8 goals and chipped in 8 assists for the Sabres, who improved to 7-2-3 overall and 2-0 in UEC River Division play.

The Sabres’ backline of stopper McGlone, sweeper Sharice Ellenwood, Christina Corona, and Rosa Miranda also helped keeper Nathalie Guindon to post the team’s seventh shutout in 12 games.

“We’ve improved a lot since the first game,” Ellenwood said. “We’re communicating and we trust each other, which helps a lot on the field. Having Hannah in front of me helps a lot because she gets all the high balls and (Corona and Miranda) are playing really good. They know what they have to do and they do it.”

Polovin was also particularly pleased with Delgado’s play against Elgin.

“Erika is our lefty outside mid,” Polovin said. “She’s technically crafty. She’ll put a little cut-move, cut-move, she always tries to find Tawny or Kim, and she can get herself in the box and create, too.”

The Sabres’ record stood at 1-2-1 after a 1-0 loss to Bartlett on March 28, but they’ve gone 6-0-2 in April, outscoring their opponents 33-2 in the process.

“The beginning of the year was rough because we had to get used to each other. We have a lot of new players,” Jimenez said. “Only four or five of us came back from last year, but we got used to each other. We all know where we’re going and we talk a lot, and move and pass.”

Polovin also likes the way his Sabres are buying into what he’s selling them.

“When I’ve been working with the mids and forwards in practice, it’s speed of play,” he said. “That’s our main thing with them – get the ball, find an open person, run off the ball, get out of that space quickly, make some overlapping runs – two-touch and move the ball around.

“They’re doing everything I ask them to do, and they’re having fun.”

Streamwood hosts Addison Trail Thursday and Dundee-Crown on Monday, before playing at St. Charles North on Tuesday of next week.