Girls soccer: Emma Turner scores twice, leads Indian Creek past Genoa-Kingston

WATERMAN — Paige Feitlich played the ball up from the back of the Indian Creek half, finding Emma Turner with a perfectly placed pass.

Turner had to beat just one defender on the other side of midfield, then had a clear path to the goal, and knocked it home.

It was the first of two goals for the senior forward as the Timberwolves won their season opener 4-0 against Genoa-Kingston at Pack Park on Thursday.

“She gave me a really nice pass. I just had to sprint up the field and get around the one girl, shoot the ball and score.”

—  Emma Turner

“She gave me a really nice pass,” Turner said. “I just had to sprint up the field and get around the one girl, shoot the ball and score.”

The Cogs (1-1) opened their season Wednesday with a 3-1 win against Marengo, scoring all their goals in the second half.

But on Thursday the offense struggled to get much of anything going against Indian Creek. Their best scoring opportunity didn’t happen until the final 10 minutes of the first half and by then they were already down 3-0.

Adeline Valenti had a rocket from close range go off the upright, ricocheting away. The Timberwolves cleared, and down the other end nearly scored when Feitlich took a corner from Emma Wilson, the shot going just wide.

“Paige is a very solid defender,” McClure said of the junior defender, who had an assist, the near-goal and a couple big clears in the second half to preserve the shutout. “We knew she was going to step in and take over where we lost three senior defenders last year. We knew we had holes to fill, and every year Paige keeps getting better and better.”

Turner’s first goal came in the eighth minute, then she followed it up in the 23rd minute with her second goal. She beat goalie Zoe Nieves to the ball then popped it into the back of the net with authority.

“Me and the goalie were both running at each other and I got there first,” Turner said. We kind of collided and I feel really bad for that.”

Izzy Turner added a goal in the 30th minute with a soft liner past Nieves. Freshman Madelynn Swanson moved to goal in the second half, and the only goal she allowed was an own goal.

Wilson ripped a shot from only about 10 yards out. It deflected off Serna Citlali’s leg, causing it to change direction and get past Swanson with 19:50 left in the contest.

“We had a game just yesterday that we won,” Genoa-Kingston coach Holly Lippold said. “That was tough, coming back-to-back games. But the score could have been a whole lot worse. Defensively we played pretty well. We’re getting there.”

Lippold said offensively the team struggled on Day 2 of a back-to-back combined with the weather. But she said she still likes what she’s seen out of her team this week.”

“This game, again, cold, rainy,” Lippold said. “We just played back-to-back games. But I have high hopes for them and they have high hopes for themselves, which is positive moving forward.”