O’Leary, Holten score two goals apiece as Collinsville girls soccer outscores O’Fallon

Already blessed with a potent offense, the Collinsville High girls soccer team has become even more formidable with the addition of junior midfielder Alynnah O’Leary to its lineup.

O’Leary, playing in just her fourth game this season since recovering from two broken vertabrae, and junior Emily Holten scored two goals apiece Tuesday as the Kahoks outscored O’Fallon 5-2 in a Southwestern Conference game.

“She has so much speed on that left side,” Collinsville coach Clay Smith said of O’Leary, who has six goals. “She’s got a (good) left foot and she understands that position well and can make the runs. And she’s got great players like Andrea Frerker and Emily Holten playing balls in the center of the field who give her those nice passes.

“So yeah, she’s a very creative player and she just adds another weapon to our offensive third of the game. She’s nice to have back, for sure. I think she’s a little sore now and then. But she was on tonight. She’s a complete package.”

Collinsville improved to 8-1-2 overall and 3-0-1 in the SWC. O’Fallon fell to 4-4-2 and 0-1-2.

O’Leary suffered her injury March 24 when she ran into the goal post during a game against Edwardsville. She missed the next four games.

“It was tough sitting out four games,” O’Leary said. “Coming back, it feels good and fun. I just had two minor fractures in my vertabrae and had to sit out for two weeks to heal.”

Key sequence

O’Leary put the Kahoks on the board just 18 seconds into the game, scoring inside the far post with a shot from the left wing. The assist went to Frerker.

The lead grew to 3-0 by halftime on goals by Holten at 16 minutes, 20 seconds, from junior Tayler Devine, and sophomore Riley Harris at 21:46, off a flip throw from the right side by senior defender Chayse Richardson. Both goals came from deep in the box.

But O’Fallon applied pressure immediately after halftime, as sophomore Sam Stutsman scored twice in the first four minutes. Stutsman’s header off a corner kick by junior Gabby Goerke made it 3-2 at 43:17 and gave Stutsman seven goals this season.

The quick goals were just what O’Fallon coach Craig Dippel had in mind.

“The second half, the girls bounced back,” Dippel said. “They were ready for it. We were moving off the ball, we were winning balls and we were making smart decisions with the ball. Everything kept clicking. We went to goal twice and got two goals.”

Smith warned his players at halftime that the Panthers would come out strong after the break.

“O’Fallon did a good job,” Smith said. “They came out and possessed the ball a little bit. The first goal was on us. The second goal, Sam did a great job putting it in the back of the net, but she was unmarked. Those are correctable (mistakes). If they weren’t correctable, I would be concerned. But then we reacted. To come back and get a couple of more goals was huge.”

Holten scored from the top of the box on a feed from senior Caydren Jones at 56:49 to make it 4-2, and O’Leary took a pass from Frerker and made a long run with the ball before finishing at 70:21 to make it 5-2.

“The fourth goal took a lot of wind out of our sails,” Dippel said.

Up next

O’Fallon will play host to Belleville East at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, while Collinsville has a difficult assignment on the road against Alton, also at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Edwardsville 3, Althoff 0

The Tigers (10-2-1) got two goals from Ashlin West and one from Jane Ann Crabtree on Tuesday as they blanked visiting Althoff 3-0 in a nonconference game.

Althoff, which will play Belleville West at 7 p.m. Thursday at McKendree University in Lebanon, fell to 5-4-1.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 10:00 PM with the headline "O’Leary, Holten score two goals apiece as Collinsville girls soccer outscores O’Fallon."