Girls soccer: Ella McDonnell scores twice, adds an assist in 3-2 Morris win over Streator

STREATOR – On a day when a steady drizzle made the pitch slick and unpredictable, Morris senior Ella McDonnell found a way to navigate the conditions well enough to score two goals and pass off for an assist.

McDonnell’s effort helped Morris improve to 3-1-1 on the season with a 3-2 victory over Streator in Monday afternoon’s match at a soggy James Street Recreation Area.

“Today was really a team effort,” said McDonnell, a Division I IUPUI commit who scored 26 goals as a junior. “I know I had a couple goals. But it’s really hard to score goals all by yourself, you have to have help from your teammates, and that’s what happened today for me. Both goals were from a teammate finding me in open space, and then I was fortunate enough to find the net.”

Morris held a 2-1 advantage at halftime as Bulldogs freshman Audrey Arambula scored after McDonnell had found the back of the net twice in the opening 40 minutes.

“My first goal was just a chip over the keeper, and then the second one, well, it was kind of lucky as it just slipped out of the keeper’s hands and went in,” McDonnell said. “It was a day with everything being wet that you wanted to put the ball toward goal any chance you had.”

Morris made it 3-1 just over 10 minutes into the second half when junior Danica Martin scored off a McDonnell assist on a shot just outside the penalty box.

“I know we were up one at halftime, but I really felt we’d played better in the second half,” Morris coach David Valdivia said. “We really started to connect and string multiple passes together, and we also did a better job of not only possessing the ball but moving it around. We talk all the time about using the give-and-go, I saw a lot more of those in the final 40 minutes.

“With the wet field and rain conditions were less than ideal. But I felt like us having a turf field which plays fast and that we practice on a home, we were able to adjust the ball skipping all over the place today. When you have conditions like today, as a player, you just have to adjust as quickly as you can. I felt we did a pretty good job doing that.”

Streator (0-2-1) again cut the deficit to one goal, this time on an 18-yard strike from the right wing by senior ZuZu Gonzalez with 24 minutes left. The Bulldogs controlled much of the action in the final minutes but were unable to put home the equalizer.

Morris senior keeper Maggie Stuebinger was credited with 22 saves.

“I feel the first half was really just both teams trying to adjust to the conditions,” Streator coach J.T. Huey said. “One of their goals in the first half was because of the wet conditions, slippery ball goes through our keeper’s hands, then their second half goal was just an unlucky deflection that goes right to one of their scorers in open space. It’s soccer, sometimes crazy things happen.

“This was only our third match and we lost nine or 10 seniors from last year’s team. This is a young group that is starting to make adjustments, starting to gain more confidence, and starting to play pretty good soccer. We had a number of chances to tie things up in the final 20 minutes, but just couldn’t find the target with our shots.

“Overall, we will get there, it’s just going to take some more time and matches under our belts.”

Morris is off until Monday, when it will host La Salle-Peru in an Interstate 8 Conference match. Streator, weather permitting, is schedule to travel to take on Rochelle on Tuesday.