Freshman boosts Southwest girls soccer team

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BY BRENT C. WAGNER / Lincoln Journal Star

We’ll just hope Liz Sundberg doesn’t read the newspaper.

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Southwest's Chad Bailey (left) and LSE's Stephen Boakye battle for the ball in first-half action Friday at Seacrest Field. (LJS)

Southwest's Chad Bailey (left) and LSE's Stephen Boakye battle for the ball in first-half action Friday at Seacrest Field. (LJS)

A teammate is about to heap some major praise upon the Lincoln Southwest girls soccer player, and we’d hate to have it go to the freshman’s head.

“I’m very impressed with Liz,” said Southwest junior Bri Exstrom, following the Silver Hawks’ 3-2 victory against Lincoln Southeast on Friday at Seacrest Field.

“Even though she’s a freshman, I look up to her because she does great things, and we work so well together.“

That’s some heavy stuff, but after all, it was the Exstrom-Sundberg combination that hooked up for the game-winning goal. Sundberg found Exstrom on a nifty pass inside the box, with Exstrom finishing on a shot to the corner of the net.

The winning score came with six minutes remaining in the game, and was the Silver Hawks’ third straight goal during a 20- minute stretch late in the second half.

“After I missed that first one in front of the goal I needed to get it back,” Exstrom said. “Liz has a lot on her shoulders being a freshman starter, and gave me a perfect pass.”

Exstrom added two assists, and Sundberg had a goal and an assist. Those two are the leading scorers for the fifth-ranked Silver Hawks (8-1).

“That’s the best striker combination we’ve had,” Southwest coach Dan Tharp said. “They’re just wonderful to watch.”

But it took the entire team to beat the seventh-ranked Knights, Exstrom said, especially after Southeast took an early two-goal lead.

The Southwest defense was able to slow a speedy Southeast team enough to give Southwest’s attackers enough opportunities to get the deciding score, Tharp said.

“It’s easy to let up and say, “OK, we’ll play another day,” he said. “But they just kept fighting.”

Southwest boys 3, Southeast 1

The fifth-ranked Silver Hawks moved closer to a city championship by rallying with three straight goals to defeat No. 9 Southeast (7-3).

Micah Fisher, Seth Neben and Aaron Mulgrue scored for Southwest (9-2). Two of the Silver Hawks’ goals resulted from penalty kicks.

Jordan Green scored early for Southeast, but after that, Southwest was able to slow the Knights’ scoring tandem of Green and Jason Vensky.

“We had a game plan, obviously, for Jordan Green and Jason Vensky, because they’re great players,” Southwest coach Dan Carpenter said. “You have to be able to play against great players, and I think that was a deciding factor.”

Reach Brent C. Wagner at 473-7435 or bwagner@journalstar.com