Girls Soccer: Grace Williams scores in St. Charles East debut, sparks win over Fremd

ST. CHARLES – Grace Williams took little time to ingratiate herself to the high-level expectations St. Charles East soccer can demand.

Williams, a junior transfer from Neuqua Valley, scored the first Saints goal of the season, and they went on to a convincing 5-0 season-opening victory over Fremd on Tuesday.

[ Photos: St. Charles East vs. Fremd soccer ]

“I love [the program],” said Williams, previously a two-year varsity standout forward at Neuqua. “I think the atmosphere is so competitive and it’s so nice to be here. It’s so fun. All the girls are so nice and so welcoming.”

The Saints coaching staff has also been welcoming from the start.

“[They] have told us from the start they want to win,” Williams said. “I love the mentality of that and everyone here is just so competitive, everyone wants to win and it’s awesome.”

The Saints (1-0) are coming off of a highly successful 22-1-1 season capped off by a sectional championship and supersectional appearance.

They’re re-tooling after graduating 13 players off that team, including Hannah Miller and Jenna Sitta.

That makes it nice to have a talented addition like Williams.

“[Williams] fits in nice with the girls,” Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “She’s a good kid; she’s very likable. With a group that graduated 13, everybody is kind of new, nine newcomers. So that kind of eased the transition with her coming into school. Coming into the open gyms, it’s been smooth.”

“[Williams] adds a lot to our attack with her pace,” DiNuzzo continued. “Her ability on the ball and obviously her ability to score. She’s deceivingly strong and physical, which I don’t know if she gets credit for, but her first touch was good today. I liked her ability to stretch the field.”

The Saints led 1-0 at the half Tuesday on Williams’ goal before pouring it on in the second half.

McKenna Gahagan, coming off of an 18-goal season, scored twice. Anna Champine and Yaz Martinez also added goal to round out a successful opener.

”[Gahagan] is the type of kid who is going to put her nose down and work hard,” DiNuzzo said. “And find ways. That’s been our theme through preseason – find ways. We’re just continuing to find our way. It‘s a good start to the season, but we’ve got a long way to go.”

Sofia Iori (two saves) had her first shutout, as she had 11 1/2 shutouts in the spring and only allowed five goals all season in her game action. Grace Stehman took the second half in net and had three saves.

“We do have a lot coming back and even with that, we’re still pretty young,” Fremd coach Steve Keller said. “We graduated three kids that played a critical role for us and we filled those roles with some sophomores. It was a good game to see what we have to do and have to work on.”

“I told the girls I was disappointed. I expected more, especially from certain individual that didn’t play to their potential tonight and that makes a big difference,” Keller continued. “We were outclassed. We didn’t anticipate things; the spirit wasn’t there and with that, I thought our goalie [Sam Gary] played phenomenal. Made a lot of great saves. We gave up five goals – not something we want to do.”