It was almost to the day that history repeated itself for St. Edward.
The setting and the opponent remained the same as Chelsea Gnan officially became the school’s all-time career scoring leader with her 76th goal. It happened on Saturday, April 25.
Last year, on Saturday, May 26, Allison Kruk capped off the scoring in a 5-0 win over Westminster Christian at the Green Wave Invitational. Her 63rd career goal put her past Chris Holze, a 1994 graduate of the boys program. Sixteen days earlier, Kruk broke the girls mark of 50.
“It’s been a goal I’ve been working toward all season,” Kruk said after that game. “Now it’s up to Chelsea (Gnan) to beat me so that we can forever be one-two in the record book, and I’ll be OK being No. 2.”
Flash forward to Saturday at the tourney. Kruk’s wish was granted. After a variety of near-misses in the first half, Gnan scored the final goal in a 2-0 win over Westminster for her 76th — one more than Kruk scored before graduating.
“Finally getting that goal felt great, such a relief,” Gnan said after converting off a corner kick by Taylor Gredzieleski. “I was a little nervous in the first half.”
“I remember last year, Allison told me, ‘Getting the record-breaker was the hardest goal I’ve ever scored,'” St. Edward coach Tim Brieger said. “Chelsea was trying so hard to get one and everyone was trying to set her up. That’s why at halftime I told some of her teammates to focus on getting us ahead, so as not to add more pressure on Chelsea feeling a greater need to score.”
Special Sabres
Streamwood beat St. Edward and claimed the Green Wave Invitational title, building a four-game win streak to start the week.
Senior forward Tawny Carroll, who has signed with Drake, accounted for eight of the Sabres’ 11 goals in the tourney, scoring the first and assisting on the winner against St. Edward, then scoring twice against Westminster before scoring five times in Streamwood’s 5-0 shutout of Christian.
“I’ve played in this since I was a freshman and we’d always come close, but never take first,” Tawny Carroll said. “And with this last (game) being for the ‘championship,’ scoring all five goals is an awesome feeling.”
“She’s just so fast, we had no one to match up with her,” Harvest coach Jason Acres said.
Teammate Shonali Pierce-Vazquez provided a pair of assists against Westminster. The sophomore also was Streamwood’s candidate for a sportsmanship award at Sunday’s finals of the PepsiCo Showdown. From a raffle involving all participants, 10 players were surprised with a Dell laptop computer.
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“I’m really happy to be one of the players chosen because lately there have been problems with the one I was sharing with my brother,” Pierce-Vazquez said. “The timing is right to help me with some school work.”
Whip-Pur smiles
Hampshire ended a 14-game losing skid with a 1-1 tie vs. Hinckley-Big Rock at DeKalb’s Barbfest Tournament. The Whip-Purs also chalked up their first win, defeating Sterling 1-0 based on a 2-1 advantage in a penalty-kick shootout. Meghan McIntyre and Miah Thompson connected on PKs, while Kaila Kienzler and Catie Kochanski combined for a shutout in regulation. Kienzler made a save in the shootout. McIntyre was selected all-tournament.
Commendable
Dundee-Crown had two players, Payton De Luga and Alyssa Moreno, named to the all-tournament team at the Rolling Meadows-Lake Park Invitational. The Chargers (3-9) lost to both host schools as well as Glenbard West.
“Payton and Alyssa were selected because they were the most influential players for our team,” Dundee-Crown coach Sebastian Falinski said. “They had the most impact and played consistently well each game.”
Nemeth is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.