Teamwork pays off for Sterling soccer

STERLING – The Sterling girls soccer team was a bunch of Royal Lion tamers on Saturday afternoon.

The Golden Warriors mixed some efficient offense with stout defense and goalkeeping on their way to a 5-0 victory against Rockford Christian at Roscoe Eades Stadium.

“Every single player on the team stepped up and did what they personally needed to do to improve,” Sterling coach Alexandra Miller said. “They found that success on the field together.”

Jasmin Capilla got the Warriors (4-8) on the board less than 9 minutes into play as she banged in a goal from about 15 yards away.

With just under 10 minutes to go before halftime, Sterling struck again. This time it was Hailey Walters, whose innocent-looking, rainbow-shaped attempt from about 25 yards somehow got between Rockford Christian keeper Tess Combs and the crossbar.

“Honestly, I just kicked and I saw it was going over and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s not going in,’ " Walters said. “Then I saw it go in. My teammate, Karlie Verstraete, said she was going to yell at me if it didn’t go in, but she was just joking. She didn’t think it was going in either.”

Walters struck again with 29:40 to play to up the lead to 3-0, then Ellie Gasso got into the act. She was close on several chances before finally out-racing a Rockford Christian defender for a loose ball and putting it home with 9:06 to go. Gasso now has 68 career goals for Sterling.

Chelsey Chatters finished up the scoring with 1:43 to go.

Rockford Christian coach Eron Harvey is familiar with Gasso and Capilla, as they play for him on the Rockford Raptors club team. Those two seniors were the focus of his team’s defense.

“The strategy was to limit Ellie’s chances at breakaways,” Harvey said. “She’s very fast and a very good finisher. She’s one of the best finishers on my club team, so we tried to neutralize her with Stephanie Brandon, who did a really, really good job of it until [Ellie] got that hustle goal at the end.

“Jasmin, we didn’t have as much success on. She scored the first goal, and from there she was a good distributor, helping to break down our defense to get the five goals.”

Rockford Christian (5-3) had 19 shots by Harvey’s count, including several golden opportunities by Molly Henderson and Ellen Love. Each just missed or were thwarted by Sterling keeper Jessica White.

“That was the difference in the game,” Harvey said. “They finished their opportunities and we didn’t. It’s frustrating, but as a young team and very inexperienced, it was fun to see them work to get those opportunities against a quality team here in Sterling.”

Star of the game: Hailey Walters, Sterling, 2 goals

Key performers: Jasmin Capilla, Ellie Gasso, Chelsey Chatters, 1 goal apiece

Up next: Sterling at Indian Creek, 4:30 p.m. Monday