Game 3 - Central

PEKIN -- Pekin collected its first soccer triumph of the season by dispatching Peoria Central 3-1 Tuesday in a Mid-State 6 Conference match at Coal Miners Park. Samantha Grimes gave the host Dragons (1-2) a 1-0 lead just two minutes into the game before Aimee St. Andre connected at the 27-minute mark for a 2-0 cushion. After Central managed its lone goal, St. Andre added an insurance tally at 75:00. Pekin outshot Central 13-5, with goalie Jen Adkison recording four saves for the hosts.

Coming into the season, we had never beaten Notre Dame or Richwoods and against Central, we weren't much better having lost 13 games and tying once since 97. But for some reason, I had a good feeling going into this game. And that good feeling was confirmed just two minutes into the game when Sam scored her first goal of the season after a couple of nice moves.

Then, at about 27 minutes into the first half, Ashley Snider got the ball on a square pass from Tory Udry... took it down to the corner and crossed it... finding Aimee in front of the goal. Aimee got a clean look at point blank range and sent it home to make it 2-0.

Central scored early in the second half, but this game was a coming out party for our only freshman, Jaleighsa Hamilton. Playing stopper, she thwarted run after run and distupted everything they were trying to do in the middle of the field.

Aimee scored again with 15 minutes left for a final score of 3-1... our first win of the season... and my first win as a high school head coach.