Streator girls soccer heats up late on chilly day to edge La Salle-Peru

STREATOR — With short benches, winded players and flat-out miserable weather, the 2021 season opener for the visiting La Salle-Peru and host Streator girls soccer teams Monday at the Streator Family YMCA probably wasn’t quite what they have been dreaming about since the 2020 season was lost entirely to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

It was, however, good to be back regardless.

The Bulldogs scored two second-half goals to break a halftime tie and record a hard-fought, 3-1 victory over the Cavaliers.

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Streator's Anna McMullen (18) beats L-P's Isabella Lambert (13) to the ball as Isa Bemont (22) defends Monday at the Streator Family YMCA. (Scott Anderson)

Early on, though, it was the Cavaliers dominating play, absolutely peppering the Streator goal and senior keeper Sydney Donahue throughout the opening half of play. La Salle-Peru finished the first half with a 14-7 edge in shots on goal, but the scoreboard – if there would have been one here on this cold and rainy day – would read 1-1 at halftime.

Streator struck first on an Alyssa Arambula goal off a double-assist from Isa Bemont and Gabby Garcia, with L-P answering almost immediately with a left-footed laser from Sasha Bruins just over Donahue’s outstretched hands.

“I was amazed,” Bruins said of her thought when the ball found the net. “I was like, ‘I don’t know, that’s a little far,’ but I was pretty excited for it. I was a little nervous today, but that kind of wore off as we all started playing.

“It’s nice to be able to play again against another team, get some competition.”

While on one end the Bulldogs (1-0) found a way to break the tie early in the second half with a Anna Jaworski hot-shot goal off another Garcia helper, on the other Donahue – aided by some strong defensive work by Bridget McGurk, Josie Goerne and especially Anna McMullen – was a wall. The Streator senior finished stopping 23 of the 24 shots that reached her, with McMullen adding a non-goalie save for good measure.

“My defense today was on top of their game,” Donahue said. “Once we started waking up and working together. I don’t think I would have been able to make as many saves as I did without my defense. They were just great today. ...

“[L-P] was peppering me that first half. You could tell how bad they wanted to win ... but our defense was great today. I was starting to get down on myself after that first shot was made on me, but my team brought me back up.”

Streator cut into the L-P (0-1) edge in shots on goal by the final whistle, with the tally ending 25-23 in favor of the Cavaliers.

“You saw the first-game jitters, and it was actually two years of jitters, right?” SHS coach J.T. Huey said. “They did, they peppered us, and we didn’t know quite who we were as a team yet.

“We [made some adjustments in positioning and strategy], and then we started controlling things offensively. But don’t get me wrong, L-P’s No. 1 [Bruins] and No. 10 [Litzy Lopez] were very dangerous.”

It wasn’t until the closing minutes that the Bulldogs managed to net an insurance goal and all but put the “W” away, with Lydia Huey taking a Zulima Gonzalez pass, splitting the L-P defense and getting a riseball past Cavaliers keeper Lea Selquist.

Selquist had a pretty strong game herself with 19 saves on the 22 shots she defended. Veronica Hein recorded a non-goalie save of a point-blank shot, with L-P defenders Litzy Lopez and Analiyah Flores also standing out on that end during an outing that pleased La Salle-Peru coach Christin Pappas.

“We had one sub, so obviously numbers were a little low today,” Pappas said, “but I thought we played amazing. We have seven freshmen out of 14, so we’re only going to grow from here.

“I’m really happy with the effort we gave today. I couldn’t be more proud.”