Girls Soccer: Mackenzie Loomis, St. Charles East shut down Wheaton Warrenville South

WHEATON – Mackenzie Loomis, if one will indulge, is the quarterback of St. Charles East’s back line.

It’s a characterization, the junior defender agrees, that makes some sense.

Whether Loomis is directing traffic on an offensive reset upfield or making half a dozen goal-saving plays by stonewalling a rushing forward with a swift slide tackle, she makes a considerable difference for the Saints.

“I want people to feel comfortable playing with me,” Loomis said after St. Charles East’s 1-0 win over Wheaton Warrenville South on April 18 for the program’s 12th consecutive win to start the season. “I love playing with Lauren [Silvestri] and with us two playing in the back the connection is there.”

Grace Williams, on an assist from Loomis, scored the game’s lone goal in the first half.

While the Tigers were unable to finish some promising rushes, particularly in the second half, they kept Loomis and Saints goalie Sidney Lazenby busy until the final whistle. Lazenby had three saves.

“She makes my job easier,” Lazenby said of Loomis. “She’s, one, an amazing player. She does awesome at clearing balls. She’s really good at that and she’s able to not let any balls in and she’s able to get really good pressure on players.”

Loomis had a particularly active second half to keep the Tigers’ opportunistic rushes at bay. Tigers sophomore standout Ashlyn Adams appeared to have a favorable chance with 13:46 left, but Loomis managed to close out with speed and contort her body to disallow a full power shot. Seven minutes later, a slick slide tackle on Tigers senior Kate Hartnett approaching the box stonewalled the momentum.

“[Loomis] is our anchor back there,” Saints coach Vince DiNuzzo said. “She’s kind of got more comfortable toward the end of last year and stepped in that role. She’s taken that [graduated] Anna Champine role of being that rock back there. She has great recovery speed, strength and instincts. [The Tigers] had a lot of pace and she helped us deal with it.”

Teamwork and sticking together has helped the Saints on their unbeaten run so far.

“We’ve just got to stay positive. That’s big with our team, too,” Loomis said. “Our chemistry has been growing [with] more and more practices. And we have to have fun, too. It’s all about the mindset for us.”

“It’s nice, but you’ve got to be cautious,” DiNuzzo said. “Obviously, we have a target on our backs, but we’ve had a stretch of games where we weren’t really getting tested. It was nice to get out here and get a test. It’s also nice to find ways to win when we didn’t play very well.”

The Saints (12-0, 3-0 DuKane Conference) extended their streak of not allowing a goal to five games.

“A lot of that is the defense, obviously,” Lazenby said. “They’ve been doing a really good job of being able to keep the [chances] out. I haven’t gotten many shots. That’s a big reason of it, which has been really helpful.”

WW South (2-4-1, 0-2) managed a more consistent job of connecting passes in the second half, which led to more chances.

“In our pregame, we always talk about – I play up top – so I’m a forward, I’m big, I’m strong, so the goal is always to get it up to my feet,” Tigers senior captain Lauren Barnett said. “We talked about at halftime how we have to keep [the ball] into our feet and we have a really quick play on the wide.”

“The bar has been raised. We’ve been playing with the intent to really find out what we’re capable of doing and can we play to the standard of which the competition is putting forth in their effort and their technical ability,” Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. “And learning from that. We’re starting to get a few people back from injury and it’s been a tough stretch in that regard ... but I definitely believe we took one or two steps forward tonight against a really good balanced team and that bodes well for us.”