Girls Soccer: Kaitlyn Taylor’s hat trick leads Barrington past York in Naperville Invite opener

NAPERVILLE – Kaitlin Taylor struck three times in the first half-hour to inspire Barrington to its 5-0 victory over York Thursday afternoon in its Naperville Invite opener at Barrington Community Field.

The sophomore put the Fillies (10-1-0) ahead after only six minutes when she netted her first into an open net when she ran onto a lovely cross from the end line by Brooke Brown. She doubled the advantage for the home side when she dribbled freely up the left side before driving her angled shot into the far right side after it bounded off the back post and over the end line in the 19th minute.

“This is a great team to be a part of. All of the players and coaching staff are fun to be around, and I really like the possession style of soccer we play,” said senior Kathleen Baker, who will run track next fall at the University of Notre Dame.

Baker and her backline mates Nicole Gwiasda, Caitlin Paul and Ellie Sanchez, kept visiting York’s hopes of solving Fillies keepers Ally Raynor and Avery Trapp to a minimum to continue an impressive shutout streak which has now reached seven consecutive games.

“We had kind of a rough first half. (They) kept a lot of pressure on us in our own end, and we ended up chasing four goals heading into the break, but I thought we came out and played together much better in the second half,” said Dukes senior Kathleen Buhrfiend, who will also attend Notre Dame where she will major in neuroscience.

Buhrfiend, whose coach Stevan Dobric had stationed in the middle of the park running the show for the Dukes, along with teammates Olivia Greco and outside back Ava Hansmann, would have far more touches in the second half to give the visitors’ attack some life.

Just before the intermission the Fillies would add another to the scoreline with the aforementioned Brown finding the back of the net. And after some terrific combination work by Taylor, Sanchez and Piper Lucier put Riley Raynor through for the Fillies’ fifth and final goal in the 52nd minute, coach Ryan Stengren slowly began to bring his reserves on to gain some valuable experience.

Next up in group play for the Dukes (4-4-0) will be Loyola Academy on Friday afternoon, while the venue host Fillies face that same Loyola club Saturday morning in a contest which features a pair of state-ranked sides.