Sports
Girls Soccer: West Rolls To Win Over East
West Aurora 5, East Aurora 1. West freshman Sammie O'Brien provides two assists off of her flip-throw and adds a goal in the win.
AURORA – From the first time that West Aurora freshman Sammie O’Brien saw a girl utilize a flip-throw on a throw-in, she knew she wanted to try it.
“The first time I did it, I knocked the wind out of myself, but I kept trying and the next thing you know, I was getting better and better at it,” said O’Brien, who said she has done gymnastics since the age of two.
Now a pivotal part of the Blackhawks’ varsity girls soccer team as a freshman, that weapon was on display in Saturday’s 5-1 win over cross-town rival East Aurora.
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She set up fellow freshman Reilly Kulakowski for West’s first two goals and then O’Brien scored the third goal as the Blackhawks (4-4) exploded to five goals in the first 34 minutes of the game.
“I wish we would finish more off of it,” O’Brien said. “It’s pretty much like a corner kick. We just need to work on getting in there and going all out at it. It goes to the same spot every time. People know where they should stand. Sometimes, it doesn’t happen.”
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Kassandra Ramirez was credited with a score on an East own goal off a Lauren Gaffino pass and Jessica Saffel brought the ball in untouched and scored to wrap up West’s scoring.
“I thought in the first half, we definitely played our game,” West coach Laura Wagley said. “Usually, it’s either Jess or Sammie, but we had different people scoring. We had two off the bench, and that’s awesome for us.”
East Aurora (1-6) did not fold at the half, however. The Tomcats dominated the pace of play for much of the half and scored the only goal of the second half, with Andrea Garcia connecting from about 30 yards out on a free kick with 19:31 left in the match.
“I’d say we dominated the second half,” East coach Matt Shirk said. “You have to give them credit, though. They worked their advantage with their height on the throw-ins and corner kicks. You see what happened. They had 10 of them and they put five in. Other than that, I thought we were the better soccer team for 80 minutes.”
Wagley was not happy with the way her team played with the lead in the second half.
“We came out flat and just coasted because we had the 5-0 lead and thought it would be a piece of cake,” Wagley said. “They came out fighting. Fortunately, they only got one goal out of it. I thought they could have gotten a lot more, but they didn’t, thank goodness.”
