Girls soccer: Ella Shipley’s 5 goals lead Sycamore past La Salle-Peru

LA SALLE – The Sycamore girls soccer team came out strong, scoring three quick goals in each half before adding a late goal to come away with a 7-0 Interstate 8 Conference victory against La Salle-Peru on a cold and wet Wednesday afternoon.

Ella Shipley led the Spartans with five goals.

Right from the start the Spartans controlled the tempo and the ball as the Cavaliers spent the majority of the game on the Sycamore offensive side of the field.

Shipley nearly scored only seconds into the game as her initial shot hit the near post, but after some nice defense from Isabella Lambert and goalie Lexi Robbins kept the Spartans off the board, Shipley made it 1-0 off a feed from Litzy Lopez.

“We try to work on the small, tight passes and connect for the key possessions,” Sycamore coach Kevin Bickley said. “We did a nice job of making some nice angle passes as well that led to some nice shots and goals as well.”

Two minutes later the Spartans struck again as Robbins took a step back into the net, which allowed Shipley to nail the shot into the far side of the net for a 2-0 advantage.

Ninety seconds later, Shipley picked up an assist with a tremendous angle pass to Mariana Martinez that extended the Spartans’ lead to 3-0.

From that point on in the first half the Cavs kept Sycamore off the board with more outstanding defense from Lambert and Analiyah Flores as well as five or six point-blank saves by Robbins.

“I always expect Sycamore to be a tough game,” L-P coach Christin Pappas said. “I’m never upset with the way we play against them. That’s where we want to be some day, but Lexi Robbins made some nice saves, and Isabella Lambert is always willing to do anything. Lexi’s been playing keeper for us lately and doing a tremendous job.”

Sycamore peppered shots left and right at the Cavs the last 26 minutes of the half, but the score remained 3-0 at the break.

Just like the first half, the Spartans came out aggressive and firing away to start the second half. Ninety seconds into the half, Karli Kruzenga made a nice pass upfield to Shipley, who scored for the hat trick to make it 4-0.

Less than 30 seconds later, the Spartans’ duo did the same thing as Shipley picked up her fourth goal of for a 5-0 lead.

Two minutes later, Shipley got loose and ahead of the field for an easy fifth goal that made it 6-0.

“Unfortunately, she has been the majority of the scoring for us this season,” Bickley said. “We’re still trying to find someone to help take the load off a bit, but she’s a hard worker who’s been dealing with injuries a bit as well.”

As the rain continued to fall, Taylor Zemanek capped the scoring as she fought off defenders to make it 7-0 with 14 minutes left in the game.

“Like I said I thought Lexi played well stopping about 16 shots in the first half,” Pappas said. “She dinged up her shoulder late on one of those saves which is why we took her out, but overall happy with our defense. Just wish we could’ve scored at least one goal.”