Scouts blank Grayslake Central to reach sectional finals
By Curt Herron
When your team has struggled to score goals, it's essential that you have a defense that doesn't give up very much.
A rock-solid defense has a way of helping to open things up offensively, as has been the case lately for Lake Forest.
Coach Ty Stuckslager's squad is suddenly complimenting its strong defensive efforts with a flurry of scoring chances.
The Scouts continued their recent success on Tuesday against Grayslake Central in the Class 2A Lakes Sectional semifinals.
Following a 5-0 victory in Lake Villa, Lake Forest has scored five or more goals in five straight outings, winning each.
The most recent triumph advances the Scouts (10-2-6) to Saturday's 11 am sectional championship match against Deerfield.
Lake Forest lost last year's sectional title 1-0 to Saint Viator, which looked like it would advance to Saturday's finals.
The Lions led 3-1 with just under 17 minutes left but the Warriors rallied to force extra play and captured a 4-3 victory.
In Tuesday's triumph, the Scouts received scores from five different players while four individuals were in on assists.
Jenny McKendry, Brooke Green, Adrian Walker, Bailey Ehrens and Kendall Hoke all scored goals for the victorious Scouts.
Paige Bourne had pair of assists while Sydney Johnston and Amanda Bourne and Carly Hoke all set up scores for the winners.
While scoring a lot of goals has been huge for the Scouts, not giving up tallies also has been critical to their success.
Lake Forest has not allowed any goals during the postseason and has yielded just one score in its last six matches.
Liz Clark faced few threats, thanks to Dani Loeger and Kendall Hoke in the center back and Ehrens and Johnston outside.
While Loeger was back in the lineup for the Scouts, Mackenzie Mick, who has played in the center, was out with the flu.
It was the squad's 11th shutout, with that total being boosted thanks to eight clean sheets in their last 10 outings.
"Our confidence is definitely helped since our defense doesn't give up a lot of scoring chances," Stuckslager said. "As long as we have confidence that they won't give up much, then we can take a few more risks up top.
"We did take some risks tonight and put pressure on them. We probably should have played a little more defensive, but we also want to get offensive confidence."
Stuckslager has had the opportunity to get a lot of playing time for many different squad members, and that's paying off.
"We've started three different lineups and in the first three games of the playoffs we have probably started 17 different girls and they've all contributed," Stuckslager said.
"Today we started a couple of girls who haven't started in awhile and they did well. Allie Banta was nervous at first but she did a great job and Sheridan Weiss also had a couple of great opportunities."
The Scouts applied consistent pressure, with Ehrens being stopped twice and Sheridan Weiss denied once in the early going.
Prior to the half's midpoint, Carly Hoke had two good tries halted, Ehrens was thwarted and a McKendry liner was hauled in.
Things finally clicked in the 20th minute when Johnston sent a pass inside and McKendry was able to connect on a short shot.
Kendall Hoke had a long free kick punched away by Kajal Chokshi, who then made stops on tries by Lucy Edwards and Johnston.
Lake Forest extended its lead to 2-0 in the 27th minute when Amanda Bourne found Green, who fired in a close-range attempt.
"I am so proud of our team," Ehrens said. "We came out with the intensity that we needed to get those goals in. We had so many chances and finished on a lot of them, so I'm really happy.
"Our coaches told us to run to the ball and to have the desire to get to the ball first. That's the key to winning hard games when you get further and further in the playoffs.
"We had a lot of new players this year and we played a lot of ties since we were still getting used to playing with each other but now we're getting it done when it counts.
"We have a nice mix of girls on this team. Some of them keep the intensity up and keep people going and others lighten things up when it's needed. So we have a perfect mix."
The Scouts didn't waste much time scoring after the break as their lead grew to 3-0 less than a minute into the new half.
Paige Bourne sent a pass to Walker, who connected. Paige Bourne was then denied on a shot try and then on a corner kick.
In the 48th minute, Lake Forest struck again as Carly Hoke found Ehrens, who put a shot into the opposite side of the net.
After a Paige Bourne corner was punched away, her next try found Kendall Hoke, who scored on a header in the 55th minute.
Following consecutive defeats in sectional championship matches, the Scouts would like to get over that hurdle this year.
While Lake Forest is trying to win its second sectional title, and first since 2006, Deerfield has never won a sectional.
The Warriors made it clear that they've got plenty of fight in them so the Scout coach expects a real battle on Saturday.
"Deerfield has good speed and attacks the ball well," Stuckslager said. "Obviously if anyone can score three goals on Saint Viator, it will be a good challenge, considering we played them twice last year and didn't score any goals.
"They came back today after being down 3-1. Their keeper played very well and attacks the ball. We're a team that generally has a difficult time scoring, so it could be a very low-scoring game and one that's also very tense."