Girls soccer: Cameron Johnson’s shutout, Gabi Krueger’s goal lift Ottawa past Streator

STREAOR — The Ottawa Pirates girls soccer team managed just a single goal Friday in its season opener against Route 23 rival Streator.

One goal was enough to start out the season with a victory, however, as Gabi Krueger’s strike some eight and a half minutes before the halftime break held up for a 1-0 triumph over the host Bulldogs at the Streator Family YMCA.

“I told the girls just now, technically we need to get better, but we showed we’ve got a lot of guts and a lot of nerve, and that does a lot for a soccer team,” Pirates coach Sean Porter said. “This is always a close game, always a high-energy rivalry game, so it’s tough to have that as your first contest of the year, especially when you have so many new-to-varsity players.

“We were kind of untested and haven’t gotten outside as much as we’ve wanted this year ... and we could definitely clean some things up on the attacking end and in the defensive third. But I thought in the midfield we were pretty strong, and with Gabi Krueger there, she’s always going to be a presence. She was everywhere, and we have more support [around Krueger] throughout the field this year. ...

“As we grow as a unit, I think we’ve got a lot of ceiling left.”

Ottawa is now 1-0. Streator is 3-2.

Krueger’s shot was a line-drive beauty into the top corner of the net, coming off an assist from junior Morgan Clements. It was the only shot of the six that reached Streator goalie Anabelle Dean to get past her.

On the other end, Dean’s counterpart — Ottawa’s Cameron Johnson — stopped all 13 Bulldogs shots on goal. Nine of Johnson’s 13 saves in the shutout came in the second half.

The Bulldogs won the second half in terms of shots on goal by a commanding 9-1 tally, but the only number that mattered was the “0″ Johnson and the defense in front of her — on this day led by the standout efforts of Ryley Jett and Lexi Serna, with Paris Blankenship, Alejandra Espinoza and Krueger dropping back to help also impressing — put up in goals allowed.

“I’m full of anxiety,” Johnson said, “and back there the whole second half I was basically having a mini-heart attack. But every time I stopped [a Streator shot], I was like, ‘Cool.’ ... and after every stop I was like, ‘Maybe I am good at this.’

“And Ryley was always coming in there and saving me.”

Streator had its chances, though.

In the final minute of the first half, Ottawa’s defense turned away a pair of Streator corner kicks. The Bulldogs had multiple corner tries, breakaways and one sequence with three shots one after another inside of 15 feet over the final 40 minutes, but the Pirates time and again cleared the ball with no damage done.

“The first half was Ottawa’s by far, from being first to the ball, possession control, and of course Gabby — who is probably one of the top strikers in the area — putting a bend, backwards shot on it into the upper 90, and there’s nothing we could do about that. But we didn’t finish the soccer ball.

“Then you go to the second half. We had possession, we had all the momentum in the world ... but we still didn’t finish the soccer ball. That was it. We had it at our feet, and we would play with it, but we just didn’t finish.

“The girls wanted this game, because it’s Ottawa, and it’s a tough loss because it’s 1-0 ... but what I told them at the end is, ‘You have a long season in front of you. You could see [Ottawa] in regionals. You could see Morris, our other loss, just as easily. So we need to learn and keep getting ball touches and keep getting better.’ "