The Lady Lakers soccer team played host to the St. Clair County Community College Skippers on Friday and came away with an important 1-0 victory. With the victory, the Lakers leap frog the Skippers in the Region XII standings and now stand in 5th place behind Jackson Community College - whom they host tomorrow. The top 4 teams advance to the final four tournament. Lakeland got their goal when Rae Sirl (Eastlake North) passed a thru ball to the far right side of the box where Molly Vitcusky (St. Peter's) was able to gather it in and shoot it over the charging St. Clair goalie at the 9 minute mark of the first half. The rest of the half was evenly played - mostly in the middle third of the field - with few high quality scoring opportunities from either team. The second half started off fairly even again as the Lakers continued to try to attack with thru passes and chips while the Skippers continued to shoot longer range shots as the Lakers midfielders and defenders bottled up the St. Clair forwards. However, for about the last 12 minutes of the game, the Skippers picked up the pace and began to press Lakeland. With that, they started to get a few more opportunities - but still - nothing much from close range or high quality. The Lakers continued to play under control and were able to close it out for the key win.
Overall, the Lakers were outshot 14-9 and Gina Grandini (Lake Catholic) was credited with 10 saves in the shutout.
Sivik's Sentiments: "St. Clair is a good team and well coached. I was happy with our play today. Our defense and Gina (Grandini) were able to post a shutout and our midfielders and forwards did a nice job offensively creating some opportunities. We still have multiple players playing through injuries, which makes it very challenging for our team. Rae's (Sirl) pass to Molly (Vitcusky) was a very nice play. Overall, a good game for our side."
Next Up: The Lady Lakers will play host to the Jackson Community College Jets tomorrow at 1pm on Laker Field.
