Collinsville girls soccer team busts out in 2nd half, blanks Belleville East in SWC game

Collinsville’s girls soccer team stayed patient Tuesday and reaped its reward.

Andrea Frerker’s goal broke a scoreless tie midway through the second half and Jalyn Richardson and Bianca Cortez-Perez added insurance as the Kahoks blanked Belleville East 3-0 in a Southwestern Conference game.

The win lifted Collinsville’s record to 3-0-1 overall and 1-0-1 in the SWC.

“I credit my girls for that,” Kahoks coach Clay Smith said of their ability to keep pushing despite being turned away for nearly 60 minutes by the Lancers’ defense. “We’ve had trouble scoring in the first couple of games of the season, but we have a lot of new faces on the field and we’re still trying to find our chemistry.”

East fell to 3-3 and 0-2 and is still seeking its first goal in a league game.

“They had a lot more scoring opportunities than we did,” Lancers coach Erika Todd-Baptist said of the Kahoks, who placed fourth in the Class 3A state tournament last year. “We just can’t get there in the final third. We’ve got to work better as a team. Early in the first half, we needed to finish some of those shots inside the 6. Those are game-changers.”

Key sequence

The game was knotted at 0 when Frerker was fouled 35 yards from the goal. Junior Emily Holten’s free kick sailed into the box, where senior Hanna Liljegren redirected it to Frerker for the finish in front of the left post.

That put the Kahoks on top 1-0 at 59 minutes, 44 seconds and built momentum for the goals by Richardson at 70:25 and Cortez-Perez at 79:19.

“I look to just to follow everything up,” Frerker said after converting her first goal of the season. “It’s my job to get the second ball, and I got a touch on it and it crossed the line. You can never say any of those are easy. When it comes down to the line, everyone can make easy mistakes. It’s just as easy to make mistakes, but it went in.”

Richardson’s goal, her second of the season, came on a cross from the right side by junior Tayler Devine. Richardson was unmarked when she gained possession of the ball and finished with ease to make it 2-0. It was Richardson’s second goal of the season.

“We had a nice one-two,” said Richardson, a sophomore whose sister Chayse is a senior mainstay in the Kahoks’ defense.

Cortez-Perez banged in Collinsville’s final goal from the right wing to make it 3-0. It was her first goal of the season.

Smith believes the Kahoks will be a strong finishing team before the season ends.

“Myself and the coaching staff are still trying to find the right connections and where people should be on the field,” he said. “I just keep on telling the girls it’s a very long season. I wouldn’t want to play this team the second week of May.

“We have a lot of weapons up front. Other teams we’re playing know who our main weapons are and they’re doing a good job shutting (them) down. We changed things a little (in the second half) to free some people up.”

Julie Scheiter had the shutout in goal for the Kahoks.

Working out kinks

Todd-Baptist said the Lancers will continue to try to iron out their difficulties. There will be plenty more opportunities, beginning with Thursday against Geneva and Tuesday against Edwardsville, another powerful SWC foe that already is 4-2-1.

“Once some of the girls who can score finally score, I think it will just keep coming,” Todd-Baptist said. “I’ve seen it. We came at Rochester, we came at Springfield. I can feel it when they want to come score. But every time we play teams like this, tough teams in our conference, we play on our heels. We play hard, but we don’t reward ourselves. We don’t test the keeper, we don’t test the defense. It’s like we’re running around in circles.

“That’s not what we’re about.”

Todd-Baptist said the Lancers also need to get healthy. Junior Kara Gunter didn’t play against Collinsville and sophomore keeper Grace Tantillo, who made two strong saves, isn’t 100 percent healthy. Several other players are nursing nagging injuries.

Edwardsville 4, Belleville West 0

The Tigers defeated the visiting Maroons as Abigail Crabtree scored two goals.

Allysiah Belt and Mallory Mushill also scored goals.

West slipped to 4-1-1 overall and 1-1 in the SWC. The goals were the first allowed this season by the Maroons.

Crabtree leads Edwardsville with seven goals.

This story was originally published March 29, 2016 at 10:15 PM with the headline "Collinsville girls soccer team busts out in 2nd half, blanks Belleville East in SWC game."