Richwoods 9, Pekin 1

Soccer setback
PEORIA -- Rachal Waldschmidt netted a hat trick and Becca Smith added a pair of goals as Richwoods cruised past Pekin 9-1 in a Mid-State 6 Conference match.
The Knights (12-4, 7-1) scored four first half goals and then scored five times after intermission, outshooting Pekin 22-3. Samatha Berry had the lone goal for Pekin (6-6-1, 4-4) in the first half.
Richwoods has previously beaten Pekin 7-0 a month ago at Mineral Springs Park.
The Dragons visit East Peoria for a 10 a.m. non-conference match Saturday.

Today's game was a moral victory for our team. In our conference there is Notre Dame and Richwoods at the top and basically everybody else. Richwoods came into the game with six straight shutouts and they had kept opponents out of the goal in eight of the previous nine games. Basically the "have nots" don't usually even get a shot on goal against the elite, but in two of this year's three previous games against the Irish and Knights, we did.

Down 4-0, my girls showed they still had some fight left in them. Jaleighsa stole the ball in our defensive third, got past one of their players and had room to carry. Instead, she sent a perfect ball into the air over two of their defenders. Aimee timed it perfectly and was able to stay onsides and still get ahead of both defenders. She had the breakaway we had been looking for. When their keeper came out to challenge, she tripped Aimee... but the refs let it go as we clearly had the advantage and Aimee, despite going down was able to send the ball across an empty net. One of our reserve forwards Sam Berry was able to then run in for the easy score.

We had been working on both of these things in practice in recent weeks, so it was extremely gratifying for me to know they've been absorbing.