Saints blank Sabres to conclude successful week

 

 

By Curt Herron

After experiencing a rough stretch where his squad dropped four of five matches, St. Charles East coach Paul Jennison was hoping for more positive results this week.

Three contests in the same number of days figured to serve as a gauge as to whether or not the Saints were back on the same track that they'd been most of the year.

Following Wednesday's decisive 7-0 Upstate Eight Conference River victory at Streamwood, East seems to be back to the form which saw it get off to a 9-1-1 start.

The Saints improved to 13-5-1 and wrapped up UEC River play with a 5-1 mark. They'll wrap up regular season play on Tuesday with a home match against Metea Valley.

East wasted no time in getting the upper hand against the Sabres (9-6-3, 2-3) as it used grabbed a 3-0 lead in the opening quarter hour on goals by Hannah Rawson.

Carly Pottle added a pair of scores while Liana Imbrogno and Julianna Harmon also connected for the winners. Kendra Sheehan recorded the shutout, her team's tenth.

"We had a great result on Monday night with a good win against Oswego and then last night we had a high-scoring game against Larkin," Jennison said. "So we we knew that if we could finish off the week on a high tonight that it would be good. The girls have prom so we're going to taper it down a little bit to let them concentrate on what they need to do.

"In the Naperville Invite, we had one very good result against Sandburg, where we took them apart. But unfortunately, we had three other games which were very frustrating. The Barrington and Evanston games were just bad all-around days for us and against Wheaton South we controlled the ball but just couldn't score.

"But then again, you have those kinds of games and you can't get down on yourself, you just have to keep working. It certainly was a great test for us. We've had a pretty good season so far and I've certainly been happy with the way that the girls have performed. The test and the quality that we've played against has put us in a good position moving forward.

"We hope to come back fresh next week and we have Metea on Tuesday and that will be a very tough test for us. Obviously we're excited about the postseason which is right around the corner. Everyone can pretty much work out fairly well who might come up against who."

While the Saints hope that they've turned around their fortunes, the Sabres have struggled during the past week against quality UEC competition.

Early last week, Streamwood was 8-2-3 but over the last nine days it lost to both St. Charles teams, Lake Park and Batavia with a win over Addison Trail.

But despite falling behind early in Wednesday's match, Sabres coach Matt Polovin was proud of how his squad continued to battle the Saints throughout.

"I thought that we hung in there," Polovin said. "In years past, it could have been a lot worse, but this year with the type of team that we have and how the girls play, they don't care who we play against and they don't quit. Despite what happened, the girls played hard for 80 minutes.

"St. Charles East is having a great season and I know many of their players through the Fox Valley Strikers. They play the ball around and finish well and for the most part they also defend well. I told the girls that their striker, Carly is very dangerous and she made us pay.

"We had a couple of good chances in the second half, a couple of breakaways that we just missed. And we had a lot of set pieces today, which is nice, but we just didn't finish on anything. Tawny Carroll was flying around the field and had non-stop energy and was our player of the game.

"Our girls listen very well to everything that I ask them to do. I don't have 19 club players, but we're getting the best out of their abilities. It's fun to see that we are progressing. I'm coaching them and they're listening and learning and it's exciting for both the coach the players."

One particular instance in the final half typified the frustration but also the determination that was shown by the hosts throughout the match.

Shortly after Pottle put a shot just inside the post to make it 5-0 in the 56th minute, she fired a try that was deflected before being saved by Nathalie Guindon.

But on the play, the Sabres keeper suffered a gash to the face which produced plenty of blood, and following a lengthy delay, forced her leave the field.

With no real backup available, Polovin looked for someone to step in, and senior Sharice Ellenwood raised her hand to take over duties in the net.

There was one problem, however. The Sabres had no extra pair of gloves for Ellenwood to use, so the Saints JV team gladly loaned a pair of their own.

"At that point, most teams would probably say, 'let's get the game over with' and be done," said Polovin, whose team hosts Geneva today. "But our girls didn't do that. They did everything they could to try to chip away and at least one goal, if they could. We were still trying to create chances and working hard and that's exciting to see.

"You say, 'who wants to play goalie?' and of course, none of them want to. But Sharice said that she had played goalie maybe 10 years ago, so she had the most experience out of any of them. I never expected to switch out my goalie so St. Charles East's JV team was gracious in letting us borrow their gloves and I appreciate that."

After the Saints had their initial outburst to grab control of the match, both sides had chances to add to the scoring during the opening 40 minutes.

Shortly after Guindon denied Darcy Cunningham on a 1 v 1, Imbrogno connected in the 29th minute to give the visitors a 4-0 advantage.

Streamwood had a pair of chances just before the break but Kim Jimenez had a try cleared by a defender and Tawny Carroll sent a free kick over the net.

Early in the final half, Jimenez went wide on a 1 v 1 and Carroll was wide on a free kick before Anna Corirosi saw a saw a shot deflect off a defender.

Not long after the delay due to the keeper change, Pottle seemed headed for another score but Carroll came up with a clear and then had a wide free kick.

Pottle collected her second goal in the 67th minute and Imbrogno tried to score on a corner a bit later but the effort was cleared by Lauren Schiferl.

After Ellenwood came up with stops on Allie Arvizu and Cunningham, the Saints closed out the scoring with a goal from Harmon in the 75th minute.

The Saints allowed 10 goals in their five matches last week. They've only yielded six scores in the other 14 contests and Sheehan hopes that continues.

"We came out of the Naperville tournament with a couple of tough losses so it's good to get back scoring goals again so that we can prepare for the playoffs," Sheehan said. "But it's good to play the good teams that were there to show us where we're at.

"It was good to score some goals and let everyone play and work on our passing and shape. Our defense is really strong this year with Allie Arvizu and Brianna Kruit in the middle and our wide people, usually Clara Stoffel and Morgan Settle, who help us attack out of the back.

"Our team is so close and we hang out all of the time. We know that we can win since our best friends are with us. We're really excited about being the second-seed in the sectional and looking forward to playing teams like Geneva and Batavia and maybe challenging North again."