Joliet Catholic continues unbeaten run

Updated: March 28, 2011 9:38AM

Joliet Catholic began the girls soccer season without two of its key players, leading coach Oscar Valdez to believe those injuries might hurt the Angels' chances of having success early in the schedule.

Well, four games into the season Joliet Catholic is still undefeated and unscored upon after another strong defensive effort produced a 2-0 nonconference victory Thursday at Plainfield South, the Angels' first road game.

"It's good for us-it's good for our morale to know that we can do it without them,'' senior goalkeeper Katie Ibarra said of playing without Lindsay Condon and Sarah Bannon. "We're anxious to get them back, but it's good to know we can do this.''

First-half goals by Moira McSteen, who placed a shot inside the left post, and Megan Matthews was plenty of offense for Joliet Catholic, whose 4-0 record includes 1-0 victories over Plainfield East and Oak Forest and a 5-0 win over Illinois Math and Science in the season opener.

"My strategy is playing fit,'' Valdez said. "We're at a higher level of fitness. We want it more than the other teams. We've got to keep working hard as a team.''

Valdez cited the play of four defenders--outside left Stefani D'Andrea, outside right Meggie Farhner, stopper Casey Dollinger and sweeper Rachel Zampa-with leading the Angels on defense.

"We have a tough defense, and that's what keeping us in the games,'' Valdez said.

Plainfield South (1-2) has dropped two in a row after winning its season opener 3-2 over West Aurora.

"This was our best possession game, but we didn't do anything with it,'' Plainfield South coach Kevin Allen said. "We kicked the ball around in circles. We didn't want it bad enough.''

Defenders Alayna Stepanovsky, Kylie Krstinich and Abby Banks earned praise from Allen, but offensively the Cougars are relying too much on midfielder Alex Truhlar, who scored twice against West Aurora.

"Everybody is kind of waiting for her to do her magic, but she can't do it by herself,'' Allen said.

Joliet Catholic hopes to have Condon and Bannon back in a month or so. Next for the Angels is their East Suburban Catholic Conference opener April 1st against Providence at Memorial Stadium.

"I'm very happy with the start and the way they're responding to what we ask,'' Valdez said. "I'm not going to say we're the best team right now. We're just playing really hard.''

"I think it's a big confidence boost for us,'' Ibarra said of being undefeated. "We needed to start out this way.''

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