Lake’s Savannah Little (left) is crowned by Brooke Wiley in the second half of Lake’s win over Toledo Central Catholic on Saturday. Both of them finished with a hat trick. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
MILLBURY — Savannah Little and Brooke Wiley each produced hat tricks to lead the Lake girls soccer team to a 12-0 shutout victory over Toledo Central Catholic in the season opener on Saturday.
“I think we needed this,” Lake coach Lauren Colangelo said. “We’ve been playing well in the preseason, but we changed the formation, so we really needed to believe in ourselves this game and just believe that we can play in this formation.
“(The players) were a little nervous because it’s very different from what they’ve done in the past. It was really just a game to prove to ourselves what we are capable of doing.”
Little got the Flyers on the board in the 13th minute, overpowering her opponent to steal the ball before depositing it in the net. She added her second goal in the 22nd minute.
Wiley followed with back-to-back unassisted goals.
The first, which also came in the 22nd minute, was good from approximately 30 yards out when Wiley stole an errant kick from a Central Catholic player, collected herself and sent the ball over the goalkeeper’s outstretched arms.
“I feel like we’re really evolving in a short period of time,” Little said. “We were able to connect to the midfield and find those open balls throughout. We just had fun today and tried our best.
“If we keep playing at this level and progress, we’ll be able to do really good things this season.”
Lake added two more in the first half, including one from Tessa Heckman with five minutes left. The other came on an own goal via a failed clear attempt just a few feet in front of the net.
“I think it was a collective team effort,” Colangelo said. “I tried to move people around. I wanted to build their confidence and let them know they’re able to score goals.”
Little and Wiley took turns completing their hat tricks over a two-minute period just under 10 minutes into the second half.
Wiley’s came on a second-chance opportunity following a saved shot attempt from Penelope Garcia.
Morgann Blandin, Tabitha Balsmeyer, Adeana Cowell and Audrey Snowdy added single goals apiece over the game’s final 17 minutes.
Defensively, the Flyers allowed just one shot on goal as reserve goalkeeper Kadie Bomer made the save after replacing starter Lauren Tobias late in the second half.
“It’s hard to judge in a game like this, but I think we kept our pace (defensively),” Colangelo said. “That’s what we preached all week. We knew Central had a lot of new girls playing. They played hard and didn’t give up, but just to play our game still, and I think our defenders did that pretty well.”
Wiley finished with a game-best two assists, and Riley Byington added another.
