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Girls soccer: Lake Zurich finds winning blend against Warren

Lake Zurich's girls soccer team has come a long way already this season.

And finding a nice blend of proven players and new talent has given the Bears a nice distinction: They're still unbeaten this spring.

On Tuesday night, Lake Zurich kept its run going with a 4-0 victory over host Warren in a North Suburban Conference contest in Gurnee.

The Bears improved to 6-0-3 overall and 3-0 (and first place) in the NSC. They also have put together four straight shutouts, outscoring their opponents 23-0 during that span.

"We have some young players, and players with experience," Lake Zurich coach Michael Castronova said. "They've learned to play together and have confidence in each other. We've talked about team defense and everybody doing it together. I think it makes a big difference."

Claire Jones earned the clean sheet in goal for the Bears.She had 4 stops to her credit. Key defenders in front of her included Anna Biergans, Emma Daleske, Mackenzie Parchment and Abby Willock.

The other part of Lake Zurich's team - the attack - has been equally impressive. Moving the ball forward effectively starts with the Bears' quality midfield, which is regularly generating opportunities for the front line.

"It's how we keep the possession of the ball and switch the field," Bears midfielder Samantha Hartman said. "It's how we get most of our chances. Then we find the cross up top. We get a lot of our goals with passes out wide and finding people in the middle."

Kristin Brousseau (15 goals, 6 assists) set up the first two goals for the Bears in the first half. First she found Rachel Krueger, who scored the opening goal in the seventh minute.

Then Brousseau sent a short pass up for Hartman, who made a move beat two Blue Devils defenders for her first goal of the season and a 2-0 lead in the 39th minute.

Tess Vages added a third Bears goal in the 73rd minute off a corner kick at the far post, and Brousseau added the final goal three minutes later.

Warren (4-8-1, 0-3-1 in the NSC) had a great effort from sophomore keeper Sarah Barbose, who stepped up with 12 saves.

The Blue Devils were trying to find ways to negate the Bears talents and had some success - just not enough to match them.

"(Lake Zurich) was a good team, a very good team," Warren coach Ryan McCabe said. "They were very physical, closed us down and we really didn't have much time on the ball. I thought our second half was a lot better than the first. We had some chances but just didn't finish them in the second half. It was still a good game.

"(Lake Zurich) owned the middle, for sure. We had to move some people around to counteract that a bit. I think it helped us out a little bit. It helped to get the ball out of the back and into the middle more. It was a matter of getting the right people in the right spots to be successful."

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