Girls Soccer: Mia Raschke, recovered from knee injury, helps fuel St. Charles East’s win over WW South

ST. CHARLES – Mia Raschke’s scoring outbreak is a nice reprieve in the aftermath of a grueling late summer injury and the ensuing months of rehabilitation.

Raschke, St. Charles East’s junior forward, tore three ligaments in her right knee during a soccer camp in August.

After a slower start goal-scoring-wise to the season, Raschke found the back of the net twice to fuel St. Charles East to a 3-0 DuKane Conference win over visiting Wheaton Warrenville South on Tuesday.

“I was doing rehab since day one,” Raschke said, who had meniscus surgery in August.

The Saints (11-2, 3-0) won their sixth straight game since losing to St. Charles North on April 2. They’re also working through a number of key injuries, as star forward McKenna Gahagan (knee) and Yazmin Martinez (concussion protocol) were missing Tuesday.

Gahagan’s status moving forward is unknown after tweaking the knee in practice, while the hope for Martinez is to return next week, according to Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo.

“As a team, we’ve done great. We’ve always had some ups and downs but tonight I think we worked really [well] as a team,” Raschke said. “It’s been really hard for me to score and I think tonight was really great for me because I had two.”

Raschke’s first goal came with 31:28 left in the first half. Her second came on a second-chance opportunity. Ella Stehman’s attempt was initially saved by Tigers goalie Caroline Spayth, but the ball popped out of her grasp and Raschke’s follow-through struck gold.

“She’s been so close on a number of occasions,” DiNuzzo said. “The scoring has just been unlucky; some bounces and different stuff. But, today [she] was executing. Obviously cleaned up a couple things on the net. She was dangerous. Her movement was good. She was effective so it’s nice to see.”

Lexi DiOrio’s tally with 22:54 left in the second half proved to be an insurance goal. The Tigers (2-4-1, 0-2) peppered Saints freshman goalie Sidney Lazenby with a number of quality chances, but she emerged with 11 saves over 80 minutes in goal.

“She made three saves today that were incredible,” DiNuzzo said. “…she’s getting more confident. She’s a freshman. It’s tough to come into a program that has two returning varsity kids [Grace Stehman and Sofia Iori] and do what she’s doing. We’ll have opportunities for all three of our goalies, but yeah, she played outstanding.”

WW South kept Lazenby busy, including a good chance coming in the game’s final minutes, but were unable to get on the scoreboard.

“I think we’ve played three teams in the top-15. We’ve been competitive in each and every game,” Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. “Statistically, we did everything we were supposed to do tonight…you’ve got to give credit where credit is due. [Lazenby] came up big on several occasions. They defensively are going to make you work for everything. They’re very athletic and they’re well-balanced and they’re technical in transition.”

“The game got a little bit stretched and we were chasing the game the entire time,” Callipari continued. “I really applaud our effort and our will, especially later on when you know it’s 3-0 and you’re still trying to create things in the final third. We know that. That’s where we got to get better. That’s where outcomes happen in that final third and at least we’re part of the show so that’s a good sign.”