Lakes High takes regional soccer title

Lakes’ soccer players hold up their Class 2A regional plaque after beating Grayslake Central at Lakes High School Saturday.
(Michael Schmidt/News-Sun)

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

Lakes High girls soccer coach Kevin Kullby couldn’t remember the last time his leading scorer Ashley Chernich found the back of the net with one of her shots.

“It’s been six, seven or eight games,” said Kullby.

The slump is over.

Chernich broke out of her scoring drought in a big way on Saturday, as she poured in three goals for her first hat track of the season in a surprising 6-0 thumping of visiting Grayslake Central in the championship game of the Lakes Class 2A regional.

Chernich’s big day helped the Eagles (14-7-1) win their first-ever girls soccer regional, and only the second-ever regional title by a Lakes girls team.

“That was our main focus, to win a regional for the first time,” said Chernich, a junior striker. “But in order to do that, we knew we had to play well, and we did that (on Saturday). It just felt good to start scoring again.”

The Eagles might have played their best game of the season against the stunned Rams.

“We’ve played pretty well most of the season, but we haven’t always been able to finish,” said Kullby. “We finished our shots (on Saturday).”

Lakes wasted little time in taking control of the contest, as Chernich took a thru-ball in the box from Sarah Bartlett in the fifth minute and deposited past Grayslake Central keeper Kat Dickson for a 1-0 lead.

A few minutes later, Chernich blasted home a corner kick from Brittany Mooney to put the Eagles ahead 2-0.

Lakes continued to apply pressure throughout the first half, and when Ashley Neubeck scored after taking a pass from Emily Mason in the 21st minute, the rout was on.

Bartlett ended the first-half scoring eight minutes before the break when she knocked in a rebound from a shot by Mooney to give the Eagles a commanding 4-0 lead.

Chernich tallied her third goal of the contest early in the second half on a 15-yard boot, before Jessica David ended the game’s scoring with 23 minutes left when she beat Dickson after the Rams’ goalie had slipped at the near-post.

Thanks to standout defensive play from Bartlett, Kristina Umlauf, Meghan Mulloy and Emily Mason, freshman goalie Ashley Downing was able to earn her fifth shutout of the season in just eight games played by making only five saves.

Lakes will square off against North Suburban Conference Prairie Division rival Vernon Hills in the second sectional semifinal at Grayslake Central on Wednesday at 5:15 p.m. The Cougars downed the Eagles 4-0 earlier this month.

“It was a funny game in which we didn’t capitalize on our opportunities, and (Vernon Hills) did,” said Kullby. “We know we are going to have to play much better this time if we want to be successful.”