Lincoln-Way West stays hot with 5-0 SWSC win over BBCHS

BRADLEY − After winning back-to-back games for the first time since the first two games of the season Saturday, the Lincoln-Way West girls soccer team picked up a SouthWest Suburban Conference victory over Bradley-Bourbonnais on Wednesday to make it three in a row.

The Warriors got off to a 3-0 lead in the first 22 minutes of the first half Wednesday and added a pair of insurance goals in the second half to beat the Boilermakers 5-0. They have won four of their past five games overall and three of their past four SWSC contests, improving to 7-5 overall and 3-2 in conference.

Senior midfielder Kiersten White got the scoring started for the Warriors just over seven minutes into the game, sending a free kick into the box that deflected off a Bradley-Bourbonnais defender and into the goal. White also had an assist and closed out the scoring on a penalty kick goal with just over 13 minutes left in the game.

White said she feels like the team was able to build chemistry during its 3-4 start to the season to now move above .500 overall and in conference play.

“We’ve definitely come a lot closer as a team and played a lot better,” she said. “At the start, we obviously did not have the connection, but the connection has grown, and we just want to have that continue the last couple of weeks.”

White, a Wisconsin-Milwaukee commit, was a new arrival to the Lincoln-Way West program as a junior. Now as a part of an 11-player senior class, White has really stepped into a big role on the team, coach Joe Stephens said.

“This year she’s been a leader, stepping up and owning the middle of the field and making things easy for those around her,” Stephens said. “She’s an unselfish player, looks to distribute to her forwards making runs, plays the ball in the air. She’s very technical, and she’s also a grunt, and I use that as a compliment. She’ll win 50/50 balls, she’ll win the balls in the air. She’s not afraid of contact, and it brings a different dynamic to our team when she’s on the field.”

Freshman Katelyn Mrozowski had a goal and an assist for the Warriors. Fellow freshman Reagan White and senior Molly Gillis also scored for Lincoln-Way West.

Bradley-Bourbonnais, on the other hand, had a tough time generating scoring chances throughout the game. That continued a recent trend for the Boilermakers, who have dropped their past eight games and have not scored a goal in their past seven to fall to 7-12 overall and 0-5 in SWSC play.

Their past three conference losses have come against three of the top five teams in the conference standings, and coach Kristen Powell said the number of challenging teams they face in conference play has made an already tough stretch of the season even tougher.

She added that it has been positive to see how the team has continued to play hard and be supportive throughout this losing streak.

“I want the culture on the team to stay positive, and it has been the best that it’s been for a while,” she said. “These girls have taken complete ownership of not giving up and encouraging each other, and that says a lot about their leadership.”

The Boilermakers have four games remaining in the regular season, the last three will be in SWSC play.

The streaking Warriors have a pair of big conference tests awaiting in their final three games of the regular season, starting with conference leaders Lockport on May 6 and third-place Lincoln-Way Central on May 13 in the regular-season finale. They also host a struggling Homewood-Flossmoor team May 8.

Stephens said all three of those games will be crucial as the team looks to hit the postseason at full strength.

“Our goal is to be fully ready for playoffs,” he said. “We’ve had ups and downs throughout the season, but these are three great matchups to see where we are, what we can work on in training.”