Bulldogs blank Kaneland in final Western Sun match

By Darryl Mellema

Soccer coaches all over the planet utter – sometimes many times a match – the phrase "get it wide!"

What a pleasure, then, to have a player like Hillary Cooper and her Batavia cohorts.

Playing on their notoriously-thin home field, the Bulldogs stretched the field as wide as they could – and managed to find open spaces near the touchlines, too.

And in the gaps they created by moving wide, Batavia started to get some shots on goal in its Tuesday contest with Kaneland, its last-ever Western Sun Conference game.

And they got a handful of goals, too. Powered by a Cooper hat trick, the Bulldogs upended the Knights 5-0 and clinched a second-place finish in the final WSC standings.

"As a team, we always try to use the width because that's one of our strong points," Cooper said. "It's usually crowded in the middle. Using the wings, we can get a lot of space."

Cooper wasn't alone. No matter where they were originally set to play, various Bulldogs got to the edge of the field during the match, including Haley O'Neal, Bre Choffin and Jenny Steurer.

Central players like Tory Kinniard and Alix Hanna worked to get the ball out to those wing players – and the Batavia formation 'breathed' in the process – with the ball moving in and then out like a lung.

"We try to use the wings and use the width and move it around so we can do that type of thing," Cooper said.

"That frees space up in the middle. So if we can get crosses off, that's helpful."

Batavia has been hot in the past month. After faltering to a 3-3-1 start, the Bulldogs have improved to a 12-4-3 record.

They finished one-half game behind Geneva in the WSC table with a 5-0-2 record.

The only blemishes were a tie against the conference champion Vikings and a tie with Glenbard South.

"We're really proud of ourselves," Cooper said. "We really had a rough start to our season. But now, we're connecting and we're putting things together and we're doing the things that we do in practice."

For roughly 30 minutes on Tuesday, Kaneland played with the resoluteness of a team determined to end its time in the WSC on a high note.

The conference is disbanding at the end of this season and Batavia will move into the Upstate Eight Conference.

But Tuesday was also Batavia's last home match of the season. It finishes the regular season on Saturday with an 11 a.m. contest at St. Charles North.

"It was Senior Night so we all had a lot of adrenaline flowing," Cooper said. "This was our last home game and we wanted to put on a show, do what we can do and to put it to work."

Cooper found that space out wide and then tried to send crosses back to the middle, though none had much impact.

What ultimately proved devastating was when Cooper started dribbling back inside before she got to the end line.

"Since I'm usually the deepest player, it's usually me by myself," Cooper said. "If I can take more space and take more time going up, that's good because more players can get up.

"Then I can have a shot or get a cross off to somebody instead of just kicking it into space."

Batavia's first goal came with just under 11 minutes to play in the first half when Kinniard sprayed a pass from midfield to Cooper who ran up the left wing and then chipped over the goalie.

"I can't express how good it was today," Kinniard said. "We were just on. I think everyone was excited for Senior Night. I think we all wanted to have a big night."

Two minutes later, Cooper scored Batavia's second goal when she took a Bre Choffin pass, beat the offside trap and scored.

Any thoughts of a Kaneland comeback died during a 63-second spell in the second half. First Abby Gray stole the ball, dribbled in and scored.

Gray's goal put Batavia ahead 3-0 with 31:33 left in the game. Cooper’s third goal hit the back of the net with 30:30 to play.

"It's just so stressful when it's just a one-goal lead," Kinniard said. "We keep telling ourselves that we've got to get that second so we're safe and then we've got to get the next one and keep going."

Kinniard agreed that the third goal of the evening, Gray's first of the night, was the most important.

"That kind of locked it in," Kinniard said.

Gray collected her second goal with 15 minutes left to complete the game scoring. Gray has now scored six goals in the past five matches.

"We've been working hard," Kinniard said. "We've all been solid and connecting well. We're working on our passing and it gets better with each game."

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