Meir: 'We had a lot of penalty kicks. And we knew we were going to get one eventually. We were confident. We have some girls that can get their head on the ball.'
YORKVILLE – Taylor Meier smiled like she anticipated the question.
What’s it like to still be undefeated?
Not surprising, that’s for sure.
“It’s great – we knew coming into the season that we were going to have a really strong team,” said Meier, a Spartans junior. “We’ve been playing great together. We’re going to try to keep this up and see how far we can go.”
The Spartans kept it rolling Thursday.
Meier had a goal and two assists, Kayla Radisic scored two goals, and Sycamore breezed past host Yorkville, 5-2.
Sycamore (14-0), which led, 4-1, at halftime, controlled the action early on against a Yorkville team that had won four straight games coming in.
The Spartans had 14 corner kicks for the game – and half of them came in the first 10 minutes. Finally, Radisic converted one, scissor-kicking a score behind her head in the game’s eighth minute. Radisic made it 2-0 with 21:02 left in the first half, knocking in a shot from the box inside the left post.
“We had a lot of penalty kicks,” Meier said, “and we knew we were going to get one eventually. We were confident. We have some girls that can get their head on the ball.”
Sycamore coach Dave Lichamer breathed a sigh of relief at the first score.
“We had quite a number of [corner kicks] in a row. I was glad that we were able to put one away,” Lichamer said. “I would have hated to have so many chances and not have anything to show for it.”
With Yorkville’s narrow, choppy field, Sycamore shifted its lineup and packed it in a little bit.
“We wanted to come out with a lot of strong defense,” Meier said. “We knew their field would be small, so we needed to pack in the defense. We added another person to our defensive line and that helped out a lot.”
Yorkville (9-3-1) got on the board with 10:42 left in the first half. Katie Straznickas’ free kick found a leaping Peyton Willie, and the Illinois recruited headed in a score.
Sycamore answered quickly, Taylor Meier banging in a loose ball in the box.
Then, shortly before halftime, Taylor Meier took a pass from Kierah Meier on a long run, and made a gorgeous cross to Saydie Holland for a score.
“I got it from my sister, and Saydie was calling for it,” Meier said. “We have a really good connection. I knew where she was going to be. I just placed it there.”
“It was a nice little combo, a nice little set up,” Lichamer said. “Taylor put the ball in the right place. Kudos to them. They have a nice connection.”
Kierah Meier scored Sycamore’s fifth goal, assisted by Taylor Meier.