Girls soccer: Olivia Anderson records hat trick, Crystal Lake Central routs Marian Central

CRYSTAL LAKE — Olivia Anderson felt like the Tigers figured out something when she scored with about four minutes left in the first half Monday against Marian Central.

She was right.

Crystal Lake Central knocked in six second-half goals, and the midfielder finished with a hat trick in an 8-0 win over the Hurricanes.

“The first goal made me hungry,” Anderson said. “One goal wasn’t enough.”

[ Photos: Crystal Lake Central vs. Marian Central girls soccer ]

Crystal Lake Central (3-0-0) struggled for much of the first 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do against Marian Central’s defense. The Tigers had too many touches, and players tried to do things on their own instead of moving the ball around like they had in their first two matches of the season.

The team broke through with about 17 minutes left in the first half when Kaitlin Gaunaurd headed in a ball that bounced in front of the Marian Central goal. Anderson then scored on a breakaway, but the Tigers still needed to make some changes.

“During halftime we came to our senses and had a good talk about how we know how to play soccer, and during the first half, we forgot a little,” Anderson said. “We took too many touches. We weren’t just finding feet.”

Anderson scored her second goal off a scramble in front of the net to make it 3-0 with 34 minutes left in the match, opening the floodgates. Brooklyn Carlson scored two goals, then Anderson scored her third off a corner kick to make it 6-0 with about 21 minutes left.

Lizzie Gray and Carter Thompson each added goals for the Tigers.

“Once we started picking up the intensity, things started clicking, and finally some goals started falling,” Crystal Lake Central coach Sarah Fack said. “It’s still early in the season, people are figuring things out, so we have to make sure we can figure out a way to be ready right at the start of the game. ...”

Marian Central (1-1-0) failed to record a shot on goal the entire match as Crystal Lake Central controlled the ball through the center of the field and didn’t allow Marian Central players to get to the next level.

Hurricanes coach Brittany Solomon knew Monday was a tough learning lesson for her players, but she thought it was one that could help the players as the season progresses.

“It’s our second game of the season, we have a lot of players coming in for the first time, so it’s a great learning opportunity,” Solomon said. “They still had some fun, so that’s the best thing. We take what we can learn from it and move on.”

Marian Central will travel to Johnsburg on Wednesda,y while Crystal Lake Central won’t play again until April 7, when it hosts Grant.

Although the Tigers won by a large margin, there still are plenty of lessons Fack wants her players to learn. Her players regrouped after not starting with the right intensity level Monday.

Next time, there might not be enough time to regroup.

“I think we still learned a lot,” Fack said. “We were only up 2-0 at halftime, so there are plenty of things in the first half that we talked about at halftime that we’ll be talking about in the future. We have to make sure we’re coming out strong. We won’t always have halftime to adjust.”