Kylee Kennell scores twice as Coal City tops Streator, 3-1

STREATOR — The Coal City girls soccer team allowed an early goal in Thursday’s Illinois Central Eight Conference match against Streator at the James Street Recreation Area.

However, Coalers’ senior Kylee Kennell evened the contest just under midway through the opening half, then gave her the club the lead for good with 10 minutes remaining in an eventual 3-1 victory over the Bulldogs.

The win improved Coal City to 6-1-1 overall and 2-1 in league play, while Streator dropped to 3-9 and 0-3.

“We did not start the match well,” Coal City coach Todd Painter said. “At halftime I had two points I made to the girls. The first was we needed to not give them the space we were giving them. We needed to put on more pressure. Then the second thing was a reminder that this was a conference match, it’s a big deal, and we weren’t playing that way.

“We host a three-match tournament on Saturday, and all the girls are looking forward to it. But I felt like we forgot a little bit about how this game matters too. I feel the reminder at halftime helped as well played a much better second half and did a lot of the little things we weren’t doing in the first half.”

The hosts grabbed the lead just 111 seconds into the match as senior Ady Lopez took a centering pass from Audrey Arambula and put a shot past Coalers keeper Cjloe Pluger (four saves).

“Everything we did leading up to the goal was what we are supposed to do,” Lopez said. “Audrey pressured the girl with the ball, stole it, and then made a perfect pass to me from the outside in. From there I was able to make a touch as the goalie came out and was able to get around her and score.

“We have a younger team, so we are still trying to figure things out. Getting the lead so early was great, but I think, not that we stopped playing hard, but we stopped attacking. It’s just something we have to keep working on getting better at.”

Going into the wind, Kennell picked off a deflected throw in with just over 17 minutes to go in the opening half and sent a 20-yard shot past Streator keeper Lahla Thompson (11 saves) to send the match to a 1-1 tie at the half.

Coal City used the wind to control much of the second half and finally broke through when Kennell picked off a goal kick, dribbled through two Streator defenders and put a quick low shot into the net.

“Our midfielders have really done a great job all season and did again today, especially in the second half,” Kennell said. “I also thought other than the first few minutes of the match, our defense was really solid and having an aggressive goalie like Chloe Pluger back there is awesome.

“On both goals I was able to control the ball through defenders and then get off quick shots. Plays like that are just reacting to the defense and in each case, I felt if I could get a quick short touch, I’d be able to create space to get a shot off. Both times it worked out.”

Coal City, which outshot the hosts 20-7 overall and 14-5 on net, made it 3-1 with just under seven minutes to play on a 40-yard, dancing in the wind goal from Anayi Mayorga.

“We started out so strong with that early goal and then played on our heels,” Streator coach J.T. Huey said. “It comes down to experience. A lot of these girls, mostly freshmen and sophomores are learning and developing with each match we play. We didn’t keep our pedal on the gas today, but hopefully when this happens again down the road, this will be a game they’ll remember and use the experience to stay aggressive.

“I know today didn’t produce a win, but I was really happy with the effort. This season started a little rough, but with each match I’m seeing progress. I’m excited to see how much more we can improve as the season winds down.”

Coal City is back in action on Saturday hosting a round-robin tournament with Kaneland, Princeton and Peotone. Streator is off until it hosts Peotone on Tuesday.