Short-handed Stagg blanks Shepard

Stagg's Allison Kaim (center) is defended by Shepard's Annie Evans (left) and Katie Johnson
(Brett Roseman/Southtown Star)

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Despite the fact four of his starters were unavailable to play Friday night, Stagg coach Mike Kealy was more than pleased with his team’s performance in its first competitive test of the season.

The Chargers, aided by a strong offensive barrage, put 20 shots on goal en route to a 3-0 nonconference victory over a scrappy Shepard team in Palos Heights.

“We actually had seven girls missing today, all of whom were involved with Youth in Government,” Kealy said. “So, from that standpoint, we’re really happy with the way that things turned out tonight. We’ve got some high expectations for this group, and this was a good start here.”

Kealy was especially happy with the Chargers’ defense, which allowed just three shots on goal in the match.

“We’ve actually got three juniors back there (Jillian Devitt, Allison Kaim and Rachel Wojtysiak) and they all three really stepped up. Really everyone stepped up today,” Kealy said.

“We like to play possession soccer, and we did a nice job of that and controlled the game pretty well. Playing possession soccer in these temperatures and with a hard field and a hard ball isn’t ideal, but the girls did a really nice job of it.”

Shepard (0-1) never was able to mount a strong offensive attack, but did receive a strong effort from junior goalie Shea Reynolds, who made 17 saves, several of which were from point-blank range.

Reynolds dominated the opening minutes of the match, and was put to the test early, blocking a flurry of shots in front of the net. Reynolds also made a head-high snare of a blistering shot off the foot of Tara Tarazoff at 20:39.

“Shea is a really good ’keeper for us,” Shepard coach Scott Wilkins said. “She’s been working really hard, and she made some great saves today.”

Stagg (1-0) opened the scoring with 20:03 left in the opening half when Tarazoff fired a rocket past Reynolds off a breakaway. The Chargers took a 2-0 lead courtesy of a header from Brianne Gustafson with 4:12 remaining before intermission. Stagg’s Claire Houtsma fired a ball past a diving Reynolds with just 3:57 left in the match.

Despite the loss, Wilkins did find some positives.

“Basically, a loss is a loss,” he said. “You don’t want to lose a game 3-0, but I thought that we played a lot better in the second half. Right now, we really need to work on getting our forwards to put some shots on goal and really challenge that other team’s defense. If we can do that, we’ll score goals and we’ll be all right.”