Pekin 4, East Peoria 1

PEKIN - The Pekin High School's girls' soccer team finally found its offense, exploding for four goals in a 4-1 Mid-Illini Conference win over East Peoria Saturday at Coal Miners Park.

Trailing 1-0 early, the Lady Dragons stormed back with two goals in a seven-minute span. Lauren Cash saw a cutting Shawna Swisher and played a ball through the Red Raider defense, where Swisher put it in the back of the net to tie the game up.

Seven minutes later, it was Swisher again, this time setting up for a shot inside the box when she was tripped from behind by an East Peoria defender. Marissa McGurr blasted the penalty kick past EP goalkeeper Autumn Burrage to give the Lady Dragons (2-3-1) the lead for good.

“Shawna and Lauren were exceptional up front and had several other breakaway chances,” Pekin coach Edgar Sandoval said. “We talked at halftime about tightening your gut and blocking out all distractions and I think they really took it to heart.”

Four minutes into the second half, Swisher ran into a Colleen Quilty lead pass, side-stepped a sliding Burrage and put the Lady Dragons up two with an open net goal. Cash closed out the scoring with a breakaway goal of her own.

“Colleen Quilty and Allie Zuercher were phenomenal in the midfield,” Sandoval said. “They won the majority of the 50/50 balls, made terrific decisions and passes that led to a number of scoring chances.”