Pekin 3, Peoria Christian 1

Soccer success
PEORIA -- Pekin took another big step toward its first-ever winning girls' soccer season with a 3-1 non-conference victory at Peoria Christian Monday.
Aimee St. Andre scored two goals and assisted on another as the Lady Dragons improved to 8-6-1 by defeating non-conference opponent Peoria Christian 3-1.
Pekin took a 1-0 lead just 11:15 into the match when St. Andre took a corner kick from Sam Grimes and made a one touch flock to a cutting Tori Udry, who side-stepped two Charger defenders and blasted a shot into the left corner of the goal
Nearly 26 minutes later, Grimes passed to a slashing St. Andre at the top of the penalty box, and she maneuvered past defenders to find the back of the net for a 2-0 halftime lead.
Peoria Christian pulled within 2-1 when Kelsey Chapman slipped a shot past Lady Dragon goal keeper Bethany Smith, who finished with a career high eight saves.
"I thought Chapman was offsides, but there was no call and that led to a tough one-on-one situation," said Pekin coach Edgar Sandoval. "Bethany played it well and almost had it. Despite the goal, she had an excellent game, definitely the best of her career. And for her to come back after being injured the way she was against Galesburg was great to see."
A few minutes later, St. Andre put the game out of reach with a goal off a deep Megan Richards' assist pass.
"Aimee has a second gear and she showed it on that last play," said Sandoval.
Pekin's originally scheduled Senior Night against Manual today has been postponed a week to May 17. The Dragons next visit Woodruff Thursday.

To be honest, I was expecting an emotional let down after this game. The girls really left it out on the field against East Peoria and played so hard to ensure a win for Jen so a let down would have been understandable. Peoria Christian, while not one of the elite teams in the area, is well coached and I thought they actually passed the ball better than we did. When we played them last year, Bree Z scored both of our goals and she was out. Obviously Jen (who had a great game too last year... including stopping a penalty shot) was attending her Aunt's visitation. So the two players who contributed heavily to our win in 04 were out and they hadn't lost anyone of note.

But our girls came out strong. Bethany really stepped up and played a great game. And I can't say enough about what Aimee is doing this year. When I got home, I watched video of her second goal and basically she flew in between two of their defenders, with the ball, to get her shot. Amazing.