Girls soccer: Cortni Kruizenga, Sycamore offense roll in 2nd half past La Salle-Peru

SYCAMORE – Sycamore has had trouble finishing on goals this season, and Monday’s match against La Salle-Peru seemed headed down the same path.

But the Spartans erupted for six goals in the second half, beating the Cavaliers 8-0 in an Interstate 8 matchup.

Cortni Kruizenga scored both first-half goals for the Spartans (7-5 overall, 5-0 I-8 Conference) and connected in the 50th minute to finish the hat trick. She said the team really picked it up in the second half.

“I feel like we got to feet way more, then we got in the box and ended up finishing,” Kruizenga said. “We work on that a lot.”

The Spartans also were facing freshman goalie Lily Higgins after senior Aurora Reed hurt her finger in pregame warmups, according to coach Christin Pappas.

Pappas said it wasn’t the reason the Cavaliers (8-7-1, 2-3) lost, but it definitely had an effect on the final score.

“We probably could have allowed a couple less goals if our starting keeper was in,” Pappas said. “But our freshman backup got some good experience against a really good team. Sycamore is a threat, they always have been, and we held them to two goals in the first half.”

The Spartans needed only four minutes in the second to get rolling, with Olivia Conery connecting on a direct kick to push the lead to 3-0.

Six minutes later Kruizenga finished her hat trick. Anna Lochbaum hit a rocket that went off the crossbar, but Kruizenga was there for the putback and a 4-0 lead.

“She just kind of crashed the goal,” Sycamore coach Kevin Bickley said. “She was in the right spot at the right time to knock them in. We’ll take that every day.”

Lochbaum connected on a direct kick in the 54th minute, and then Oliviana Maniaci and Jaycie Funderburg scored 30 seconds apart. Jetta Weaver capped the scoring with 0:56 left after the clock was cut in half after Funderburg’s goal in the 62nd minute.

“We’ve had a couple of games here where we’ve had five, six maybe seven different scorers,” Bickley said. “It’s good to see we don’t have to rely on one or two. Maybe in some of those games you sort of need it, but it’s good to see the teamwork where we’re knocking the ball around and others are stepping up and finishing those chances.”

The Cavaliers best shot at scoring came early in the first half in the 14th and 15th minute, Vicky Tejada put a couple of shots on frame, but goalie Tayla Branstrom turned them away.

Pappas said she was proud of her team and would have liked to see what the Cavs could have done with a full squad, and said she thought they could have attacked better in the second half.

“Honestly, I think the girls kind of defeated themselves before the game started,” Pappas said. “They know Sycamore is a good team, so they were already in their heads. Defensively I don’t think we did a terrible job. There were mistakes that were made, but there were also some promising attacks we had. Then we just ran out of gas and let them destroy us, and that got our heads down.”

The win was the first of four home games for the Spartans this week. They have nonconference games against Belvidere North on Tuesday and Dixon on Wednesday before hosting Kaneland on Friday in a match likely to determine the regular season winner of the I-8.

The Spartans have lost three of the past four meetings to the Knights and haven’t scored in regulation against Kaneland since 2019. The lone win was the last meeting, the title game of last season’s I-8 tournament, a win for the Spartans on penalty kicks.

“I think the girls are hungry for it for sure,” Bickley said. “It’s always one of our goals to win conference, and Kaneland has had our number the last few years, and hopefully this will be our year this year.”