Girls soccer: Plainfield East cruises past Joliet Central

Kessiah Purnell’s hat trick led the way in a 7-0 victory for the Bengals

Plainfield East’s Kessiah Purnell, left, celebrates her goal with teammate Ava Graske against Joliet Central on Thursday, April 11, 2024.

There’s all-around great performances, and then there’s whatever Plainfield East put together Thursday.

The Bengals’ girls soccer team was dominant in all phases of the game at Joliet Central as five players scored.

Kessiah Purnell was the standout with a hat trick, and the defense and goalkeeper Anna Jenkins kept the Steelmen off the board in a resounding 7-0 victory.

It was a brilliant performance from the Bengals (7-4) as they set the tone early with five goals in the first half. It was a complete team effort head coach Rebecca Ford was pleased with.

“I think the girls did very well,” Ford said. “We played together as a team. It was nice to get a lot of different players involved in the game in terms of scoring and with assists and everything.”

Joliet Central’s Kathleen Hernandez works the ball upfield against Plainfield East on Thursday, April 11, 2024.

A lot of players got involved all right. Only 10 minutes in, Ava Graske put the ball in the net to give the Bengals a 1-0 edge. Four minutes later, Caroline Dinnon scored on a breakaway to make it 2-0 in a hurry. It kept going from there.

The 14th minute saw Purnell pick up her first goal on a nice solo effort to push the lead to 3-0. Eight minutes after that, Violet Meija got in on the fun to increase the margin to four. Purnell added her second goal of the contest two minutes before halftime.

Purnell needed only two minutes in the second half to make it a hat trick, and Delaney Shrupsha make it a seven-goal advantage in the 60th minute to cut the time in half and end the game early.

It was a fantastic effort for the whole Bengals team, but Ford had to give props to her sophomore forward Purnell for the dazzling display.

“She’s obviously a very important person on our team,” Ford said. “She’s someone that we look to play through offensively. She was definitely on today and it was fun to see her confidence and I hope she continues to score her chances.”

Purnell herself was just happy to do her part and complimented the performance of her teammates, as well.

“It felt nice to get my first hat trick of the season,” Purnell said. “I think we did a really good job of keeping possession of the ball and just playing together as a team. The team spirit was good.”

It wasn’t the final result that Central (2-6) was hoping for, but the Steelmen found positives to take away. Holding Plainfield East to two goals in the second half and getting multiple shots on goal certainly is something to build on.

“We really had a good game,” Joliet Central coach Stephanie Phillips said. “There were some issues and some little small mistakes, but overall the second half was really our half. We worked hard, worked our triangles, and the effort was really there. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to score, but the girls are really feeling positive about their performance. The score doesn’t show that, but we’re all about learning from each experience.”

On Tuesday, Joliet Central will play at Oswego East, and Plainfield East will host Plainfield Central. After losing to Benet 7-0 on Monday, the Bengals hope Tursday’s effort is a sign of things to come.

“I think this is definitely a confidence builder after the game that came before it,” Ford said. “I think we’re starting to work together and play to each other’s strengths. Going forward, that’s going to be important for us.”

Have a Question about this article?