Pekin 2, Woodruff 0

Kickers rated as winners
By Times staff
PEORIA -- Pekin Community High School's girls' soccer program can now be summed up in a word -- "Winner."
With the Dragons' 2-0 victory Thursday over Peoria Woodruff, Pekin increased its season record to 9-6-1 to assure the first winning season in program history. The Dragons wind up the regular season at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday hosting Peoria Manual for Senior Night.
"This is a great day for the Pekin soccer program," Pekin coach Edgar Sandoval said. "These girls have worked so hard all year and to finally have a winning record after eight years of not coming close is incredibly satisfying. We've still got a ways to go before we compete with the elite teams in the area, but this shows just how far we've come and the girls should be really proud."
The win was not easy, though. Pekin managed 17 first-half shots, but did not score. A free kick into the left corner by Sam Grimes was even waived off because it was ruled an indirect kick.
"The only thing I could tell them at half-time was that we needed to finish," Sandoval said.
Grimes scored the first goal of the game with about 17 minutes left after Woodruff was called for touching the ball with a hand. Then, about 10 minutes later, Amanda Wolf threw the ball towards the infield and Aimee St. Andre headed the ball towards the goal. The ball rebounded back to her and she beat four defenders and kicked it home for her 18th goal of the year.
Pekin outshot Woodruff 27-0 en route to its third straight victory.

This really was a great day for the program. The game was a tough one though. Woodruff moved its field to this little area in the back and I swear it was about the size of a middle school field. Between the size of the field how hard the ground was and I think the girls were feeling a little pressure all contributed to our struggles. It's not like we were ever in danger of losing this game, but we just couldn't score early.