Lady Hub defense stands tall in draw to Ottawa

Rochelle varsity girls soccer team ties Lady Pirates 1-1

Russell Hodges
Posted 4/4/17

Lady Hubs varsity soccer coach Chris Blevins didn’t tell his team that the Ottawa Lady Pirates were undefeated, and after the two Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference teams faced off on a soaking wet field at Rochelle Township High School, the Lady Pirates

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Lady Hub defense stands tall in draw to Ottawa

Rochelle varsity girls soccer team ties Lady Pirates 1-1

Posted

ROCHELLE — Lady Hubs varsity soccer coach Chris Blevins didn’t tell his team that the Ottawa Lady Pirates were undefeated, and after the two Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference teams faced off on a soaking wet field at Rochelle Township High School, the Lady Pirates now have a slight mark on the record.

After drawing Indian Creek by a score of 1-1 on the road Monday, the Lady Hubs drew first blood with a goal by senior defender Celeste Almaraz (39’) on Tuesday, and despite surrendering a goal in the second half (70’) the girls held on for another 1-1 tie to move to 1-3-2 on the season and drop Ottawa to 3-0-1 overall.

“It was a big effort on everybody’s part today,” Blevins said. “Abby Kerns played out of her mind. She was always where she needed to be and she made a lot of key plays to get the ball back to the midfielders and the forwards… We did a much better job filling the middle of the field and taking up empty space.”

Rochelle has been riding its defense since the start of the season, allowing two goals or less in four of its five games prior to Tuesday’s match against Ottawa. It was more of the same against the Lady Pirates, with sophomore goalkeeper Holli Drew recording 12 saves including several tough grabs in the final five minutes of regulation.

Almaraz’s goal was her second in two games for the Lady Hubs, but the senior has been a lone bright spot for the Rochelle offense thus far. Blevins said the girls are improving up front, but he also said they still have plenty of work to do.

“We have to work on our timing,” he said. “Our timing is still off a little bit. We’ve been putting our backs to the goal a little bit too much, so we’re trying to get everybody more side-on to get the timing down… Hopefully we’ll have our regular starters in place on Thursday and we’ll see where we go.”

With the game tied 1-1, Ottawa made several late runs at the Rochelle goal, earning four corner kicks in the last two minutes and puttiing several shots on, over and around the net. The soggy conditions made it difficult for the Lady Hubs to clear balls away from the box, but despite several close calls the girls managed to escape with a tie.

With more rain coming in and a lot of energy used up over the past two games, Blevins said the girls will take it easy in practice on Wednesday in order to recharge for their game against the LaSalle-Peru Lady Cavaliers on Thursday at RTHS. Junior Alyssa Cepeda is also expected to return after missing both Monday’s game and Tuesday’s game.