Spring Reign Continues for Eisenhower Soccer

The girls soccer team is enjoying the spring reign as the Eagles continue their league dominance and remain unbeaten in 11 games overall. 

The Eagles defeated Chippewa Valley 5-0 Wednesday night, and the victory puts the Eagles at 5-0-1 in the Macomb Area Conference red division and 9-0-2 overall.

"I was absolutely happy with our team's performance tonight," Eisenhower coach Mehrdad Nekoogar said. "We executed both halves very well. We had a strategy of getting the ball wide, which the girls did, and we were able to get Megan Marsack basically one-on-one with their defenders and that worked well for us. The most important thing is that we did a good job on their best player, Didi Dedvukaj. Rachel Eklund did a fantastic job of marking her and shutting her down."

Senior captain Megan Marsack also did her job at striker for the Eagles and scored her second hat trick of the season while adding one assist. Marsack was brilliant with her finishing, but the game was not a one-girl show by any means.  

Each and every player on the Eisenhower team ran non-stop and, more importantly, they worked just as hard off the ball as they did on it. The Eagles dominated play the entire game, scoring three goals in the first half and two in the second. 

Scoring opened at 31:40 on a ball that was won in the midfield by Sophie Maccagnone. The junior midfielder lined up a diagonal pass to Marsack who snuck insider her defender and sent the ball into the net.   

Goal number two came four minutes later on a smooth pass from Marsack straight up the middle of the field to co-captain Monika Lee. Lee accepted the ball and sent it home to extend the lead to 2-0 at 27:49.

Marsack scored her second goal at 20:02 in the first when Lee returned the favor on a hustle play up the left side. One quick pass from Lee and one quick shot by Marsack made the game 3-0 at half.

Hungry for her hat trick, Marsack had three lethal-but-stopped shots early in the second half. Her third goal finally came at 26:41 off an initial corner kick from Maccagnone. Lee hit the crossbar with a header and Marsack pounced on—and nailed—the rebound.

Marsack confided that the team had a little extra spring in their step upon meeting the Big Reds for a second time this season.

"Knowing that this team hurt our goalie (Anna Vess) and took her out of the season with a broken hand, we knew that we needed to come out and play for her this game," said Marsack. "We played with our hearts and I think we played really well." 

Sophomore K'Sha Conquest, a recent acquisition from the JV squad for this game, scored the Eagles' fifth goal at 4:38 in the second half on a rebounded rocket shot by Lee.

Goalkeepers Kimmy Morck and Danielle Purgar split the shutout for Ike.

For Chippewa Valley, Dedvukaj was a standout player and goalkeeper Kayla Werthmann took the loss.