LCA’s Sister Act Leads Cougars To Win Over WhitkoWINONA LAKE – Lakeland Christian Academy‘s sister act of Tori and Jessi Calizo combined for five first-half goals to lead the Cougars to a 7-1 non-conference girls soccer win over visiting Whitko Monday night.
Sophomore Jessi opened the scoring five minutes into the match off an assist from her sister. The two reversed roles five minutes later, with senior Tori finding the net on the second goal.
Jessi scored an unassisted goal at about the 20 minute mark, followed by Tori scoring at the 23 minute mark then closing out the half with a goal off a corner kick by junior Joy Hanes.
Hanes scored a goal of her own 11 minutes into the second half, and Keely Bauer capped the Cougar scoring with a goal on a breakaway.
Freshman Zoe Gaff got the first Wildcat goal of the season late in the contest.
“I was happy that we had more than the two scorers; we had four tonight,” LCA head coach Nat Raber said. “It’s always good to spread it around some.”
As defending sectional champions, LCA has lofty expectations for this season. After graduating six seasons from that title squad, Raber said the squad looks to the senior Calizo sister for leadership, and she’s growing into the role.
“Tori’s a phenomenal player, and she’s definitely more critical of herself than she needs to be,” Raber said. “She’s taken on the leadership role, she’s one of our captains, and leads by example very well. We just need her to be a little more vocal.”
Each season requires coaches to adjust strategies to the skills of the current players, and the Cougars are no exception to the rule. This year’s team is going about its business differently than last year.
“Right now we’re just trying to figure out who we are and how we’re going to play together,” the coach said. “We knew we were going to have to change the way we play. We’re more of a possession team and moving the ball by passing, instead of being able to play ‘hero soccer,’ when people go one-on-one.
“It was good to be able to get different people out on the field tonight, so we can put our best team out there when we hit sectional, because that’s the ultimate goal is to win it again and go further.”
Lakeland Christian (2-1) won’t take the pitch again until Sept. 5, when the Cougars travel to Syracuse to take on Wawasee. Whitko (0-2) hosts Rochester Thursday for a Three Rivers Conference match.
