Lincoln-Way Central limped into Tuesday night’s contest with Homewood-Flossmoor shorthanded due to injuries and coming off a disappointing loss Saturday to Joliet Catholic.
By the time the game was over, the Knights were jumping for joy.
Kyla Grundhofer scored twice and Lincoln-Way Central rolled to an impressive 5-0 win over the Vikings in a SouthWest Suburban crossover in Flossmoor.
“It was a great night for the Knights,” Central coach Dan Radz said. “We were down five players and only had two subs, but the girls came out and regrouped. We possessed the ball like you wouldn’t believe. We passed it around nicely. We put some balls in the back of the net. This is what we needed.”
Central (4-2-3) spent the majority of the first half on the attack, but had nothing to show for it until there were less than two minutes before the break.
That’s when Grundhofer camped out at the far post and headed home a perfectly-placed corner kick from Sarah Ortman, who recorded the first of her two assists.
“It’s just a matter of getting the ball to my teammates and letting them do their thing,” Ortman said. “We definitely built off that first goal and came out ready to go in the second half.”
The Knights broke it open early in the second half. Sara Petrone took a free kick 44 seconds in from 40 yards out and sent a high shot over the head of H-F goalie Zoie Cole and in.
Ortman and Grundhofer connected again not long after, Grundhofer heading home an Ortman corner for a 3-0 lead.
“(Ortman) is my girl,” Grundhofer said. “She laid it right on me and I just did my job and headed it in.”
Heidi Killinger added a goal for the Knights and an H-F own goal made it 5-0.
Anita Fournier, who’s typically a striker but filled in in the net with Central goalie Erin Doody injured, made three saves for the shutout.
She came up with a pair of big stops in the first half, denying H-F’s Sammi Farkos twice on free kicks from striking distance.
Cole made six saves for the Vikings (1-4), who were missing two starters due to injury and three due to illness and had three others hurt during the game.
“We’ve got to get healthy and we’ve got to do the simple things,” H-F coach Jim Boswell said. “We’re trying to play too fancy and we’ve got to get back to basic soccer.”
