Marian Central cruises past Chicago Christian

Despite losing seven of its first nine matches, Marian Central is a team that could make some noise in the Class 2A playoffs this spring.

The Hurricanes showed why on Saturday, making the long drive from Woodstock to Palos Heights and blowing out host Chicago Christian 5-0 in Suburban Christian Conference action.

"Our record's a bit misleading," said Marian Central coach Kristian Rockall, whose team faced a lot of bigger schools in the St. Francis and Huntley tournaments. "For the first few games of the season we were experimenting a lot.

"We had a lot of players missing and we played a lot of strong teams while we were still trying to figure things out, and in the last week we've just started to take shape and start to understand the patterns of play that we're trying to accomplish as a team."

The Hurricanes (4-7, 2-0) established a pattern of domination early on and didn't let up. Chicago Christian (5-3, 2-2) did not get the ball across midfield in the first 15 minutes and took 32 minutes to muster a shot.

Senior Katie Przybysz opened the scoring by knocking home a cross from Harmony Kedzora with 25:35 left in the first half. Amy Rechenberg made it 2-0 on a 12-yard shot at the 9:10 mark shortly after the Hurricanes intercepted a goal kick.

Chicago Christian goalie Becca Hook kept the score close for the rest of the half, making six of her 10 saves before intermission. But she was under siege throughout as Marian Central, which was coming off a 7-0 rout of Montini on Thursday, outshot the Knights 29-2.

"We were pretty confident coming off the win against Montini," Przybysz said. "We were all on a high."

Senior Susan Thomas quashed any hope of a Chicago Christian comeback by scoring 4:51 into the second half and then senior Kaitlin Logan added two insurance goals for the Hurricanes, the last of which was assisted by Przybysz.

"Nice passes was one [contributing factor] and then lots of moving the ball and talking [was key]," said Logan, who has scored four times in the last two matches. "Going from one side of the field to the other made them move their defense and left open spaces for us to find the net."

Przybysz feels the Hurricanes have found their stride after the slow start.

"It was just basically that transition from club soccer to high school soccer, playing with new girls," she said. "I think we were just trying to work out figuring out new spots. I think we have it down now. We have a lot of good talent on the team and hopefully we will do well the rest of the season."

For Rockall, it's all going according to plan.

"The plan was to spend the first couple of weeks shaping up the team and then the next few weeks trying to master our game and come strong toward the end of the season, so I'm hoping now we're on the right track and hoping that we'll be tough to beat from now on," Rockall said. "We've got a bunch of determined girls that are working hard for each other now, so long may it continue."

Chicago Christian coach Trevor Schans won't be surprised if it does.

"I knew coming in that they were going to be very good," Schans said. "They are just very disciplined, very structured , they know what they want to do with the ball, and they have good first touch. You hope for a better result, but [against] a disciplined team like that you really have to be giving your best performance to limit their opportunities."

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