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Girls soccer: Tommasone, Benet defeat WW South

Few goals are scored in most soccer games, but strikers expect to deliver on every offensive attack.

While those expectations are unrealistic, it's that kind of positive attitude that many big scorers possess, including Benet sophomore Mia Tommasone.

Tommasone didn't score on all of her opportunities during Thursday's nonconference game at Wheaton Warrenville South, but she found the net on a pair of them to lead the Redwings to a 2-0 victory.

"The scoring chances don't come very often," she said. "I knew it was my time to reach toward doing it and I go into every game looking to do whatever I can to help my team and that includes getting my shots off."

After not entering the scoring column in Benet's first four games, one would think that Tommasone, who led the Redwings with 14 goals last spring, had Benet worrying.

Why fret when you're winning?

"She's our leading goal scorer from last year so it was good to get her going," Benet coach Gerard Oconer said. "And really our scoring this year is going to come from a lot of different kids, including Mia, and we've already now had three different kids score twice in our wins."

Benet (4-1) struck in the 14th minute after Erin Flynn popped the ball just outside of the penalty area. The Tigers couldn't clear it, and Tommasone secured possession from 22 yards away and sneaked it right inside the right post.

Wheaton Warrenville South (2-1) didn't panic but proved to be unlucky in pursuing the equalizer. The Tigers had shots sail just over the crossbar and another carom right off it as Allie Anderson led a formidable attack from the midfield. They kept coming at the Redwings, forcing goalkeeper Eva Frantzen to make 7 saves, but just couldn't get the ball to bounce their way.

"I thought it was well played through the middle third of the field," Tigers coach Guy Callipari said. "There wasn't a whole lot of offense. We failed to clean the one ball that came to the back line and with a prolific scorer, we didn't press her and that was about it."

The Redwings never could exhale until Tommasone showed why she's such a dangerous offensive weapon with 3:40 left.

She eluded defenders while keeping her composure, not rushing her shot, waiting for the prime opportunity and swiveling around the box to deliver it.

"I was looking to finish strong and saw an opportunity in front of the net," she said. "There were a lot of defenders in front of the goal so I took a few touches, waited to see if anything was open and then took the shot."

Apparently, Tommasone's patience is paying off.

"It felt really good to get those opportunities in front of the net, and each game we're getting stronger," she said. "We're working well together as we're generating more opportunities. We had some seniors graduate, so we kind of had to adjust our style of play a little and I think we're getting used to it."

Despite losing for the first time Callipari has been pleased with the team's start.

"This game was a good lesson for us and we needed something like that," he said. "We usually don't play back-to-back like this so we'll take off the next six days to recover because we're not very deep in terms of being able to play at a certain level while staying fresh."

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