Downers South rolls by Hornets

Updated: May 3, 2011 9:52PM

Downers South’s girls soccer team simply does not lose conference games.

The No. 9 Mustangs have been the queens of the West Suburban Conference Gold Division for most of this century and their reign does not appear to be in jeopardy any time soon.

Downers South scored three goals in the first 13 minutes Tuesday night en route to a 4-0 victory over its biggest league rival, Hinsdale South.

The Mustangs (15-2-1, 4-0) now have won 60 consecutive conference matches and can clinch at least a share of their 10th straight Gold championship by beating Morton on Wednesday. Their last Gold loss came on April 3, 2001 when they fell 2-1 on penalty kicks to Hinsdale South.

“It’s a tradition,” Downers South freshman Stephanie Zurales said. “It’s good pride for the seniors to go out strong with a conference championship, so hopefully we can end the season like that.”

Zurales scored early in each half and now has 13 goals, tying her for the team scoring lead with senior Keri Kujawa, who had a goal and an assist.

Zurales’ first score came just 1:35 into the contest when she took a lead pass from Jess Bronke, ran around a defender in the left side of the penalty area and beat Hinsdale South goalie Vanessa Niestrom with an eight-yard shot.

“It was a great ball by Jess Bronke and I just ran onto it and got it into the back of the net,” Zurales said. “We had a couple good balls that I ran onto and our defense played really strong. We didn’t let anything get through, so it was a really good half for us.”

The same could not be said of the visiting Hornets (7-7, 3-1), who could not stop Downers South midfielders Bronke, Sarrah Ludwig and Megan Martin from sending accurate passes into the box.

Bronke set up the Mustangs’ second goal on just such a long ball. Niestrom cut it off but bobbled the ball and Kujawa pounced on it with 29:45 left in the first half. Martin then made it 3-0 by booming a 23-yard free kick over Niestrom’s head at the 27:47 mark.

“I’m not sure if any one of their first three goals was what I would say is a quality goal,” Hinsdale South coach Pat Wolf said. “After the first one you could just see where you’re down a little bit. Do we have the athletes that they have and the bench? No, but you have to believe that you have some ability instead of just being in panic mode. Just relax and play and I think we gave that away when we gave up two early goals.”

Downers South coach Barry Jacobson, whose team has won 10 of its last 11 matches, eight by shutout, was pleased with the early pressure.

“One of our goals was to come out right off the bat and try and attack the back line and I thought we did a nice job of that,” Jacobson said. “Steph got off right away and finished a nice run. We did some nice stuff for most of the game.”

Zurales finished the scoring 2:43 after halftime when she crashed the far post to knock home a high cross from the left wing by Kujawa. Niestrom, who finished with seven saves, kept the game from getting further out of hand by making a great diving stop on Ludwig with 2:25 left.

Amanda Meyers had to make only one save to record her 11th shutout for Downers South.

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