The Geneseo Lady Leaf soccer team ran over its first hurdle May 18 in the first round of IHSA regional play with a commanding 8-0 win over Rock Island in Geneseo.
“We played Rocky already and won 7-0, so we knew we had an opportunity to win,” said head coach Ian Kline. “The girls played well from the beginning and didn’t give up a shot on goal.”
Jade Mariman punched through the first goal of the game on the assist from Jordan Wagner 11 minutes into the contest. Wagner followed with her own goal, unassisted at 19:00 to put Geneseo up 2-0.
Kaitlyn Ebarb put the Lady Leafs up 3-0 with an unassisted goal at 30:00, followed by two goals within a minute of each other by Nystrom for the hat trick. Nystrom’s first goal came on the assist from Alli DeSmith at 37:00 and the second at the 38:00-mark on the assist from Ebarb.
“The girls were prepared, ready to play and knew what they needed to do,” said Kline.
Geneseo led 5-0 at halftime.
In the second half, Mariman scored her second goal of the game on the assist from Keatyn DeGrave at 50:00, while teammate Karah Bishop finished things off with an unassisted goal at 75:00.
Geneseo finished with 20 shots on goal, while Rock Island took none.
“We took a lot of quality shots on goal and had a few nice finishes off of services,” said Kline.
The Lady Leafs (16-2 overall) will host Alleman today at 6 p.m. for the regional championship.
“We’ve played Alleman at Alleman and we played fairly well,” said Kline. “We finished eight and they had one, so they did score on us, but we had a let up and let them get an opportunity. We know what we need to do. We will be ready to go.”
Geneseo, Ill. —
