Written by Russ Hodges, Sports Editor
BYRON — The Rochelle Lady Hub varsity soccer team gained new confidence after picking up its first two wins of the season and taking third place at the Byron Tournament on Saturday.
Rochelle overcame its opening loss to LaSalle Peru and defeated both Christian Life and Rock Island teams to finish the tournament in third place. The Lady Habs (2-11, 0-6 Interstate 8) defeated Christian Life 2-1 in the second game of the tournament as senior Sydney Thorne and junior Emma Kenney led junior Makayla Lara They each scored a goal with an assist.
“I think these two wins really give us confidence,” Thorn said. “I think our communication, especially up front, has gotten better and our teamwork skills have improved. We’re connecting more with passes and we’ve been spending more time together, so we’ve started to connect more as a team. Confidence will help us all and we know we can win now even with a lot of new players.”
Rochelle shut out Rock Island 3-0 in the third and final game of the tournament, clinching a third-place finish. Three different players scored, including freshman forward Taylor Olsen, who scored his first career goal in La Salle's game against Peru. Thorne gave the Lady Habs a 2-0 advantage with her second goal of the tournament, before junior defender Betty Flores scored late in the game to help Rochelle preserve the shutout.
“I was really happy and elated because it's been a tough season,” Flores said. “I think our performance was a stepping stone to more wins in the future. We were able to handle the ball more, we were able to get the ball away quicker. We kept the ball more and our confidence increased. We have a lot of new girls on the team and I didn't want them to be intimidated. I thought we all came together as equals and played as a team.”
Olsen's goal against La Salle Peru came off an assist from sophomore Eviles Mendez. With this goal, Rochelle avoided a shutout loss to the Cavaliers 4-1 to start the tournament. With wins over Christian Life and Rock Island, the Lady Habs ended an 11-game losing streak. Rochelle will look to continue that winning streak in Monday's road match at Kaneland.
“Since the season started, we lost a lot of good starters and had a lot of freshmen, so we had some chemistry issues,” Lara said. “They're a big part of our team now and I thought we played more as a team over the weekend. Knowing our positions and knowing how each player plays gives us a good chemistry. You can see that on both offense and defense. This is a big confidence booster for everyone because the losses earlier in the season let everyone down, but these two wins helped us bounce back.”
