Billy Hurst file Photo | For The Telegraph
JACKSONVILLE — Alton girls soccer coach Jeff Hayes was anxious for his team to get back to action Saturday. His wish was answered even sooner than he anticipated.
Alton, on the heels of its first loss of the season Friday, was back at it Saturday morning and answered with a 6-2 nonconference victory over Jacksonville. It was a game that featured three goals from Bri Hatfield, a stifling Alton defense – and a starting time some 90 minutes sooner than the Redbirds expected.
“Our schedule had 12:30 for varsity after junior varsity at 11 this morning,” Hayes said. “We found out at about 10:57 that varsity was at 11 instead. To be honest, I saw three refs and wondered why there were three for a JV game.”
Varsity contests normally employ a three-man ref system, with junior varsity going with a two-man ref setup.
Belleville Althoff had handed Alton its first defeat of the season 2-1 at AHS in a rescheduled game. And even though it meant an early morning bus departure, Hayes was anxious to see how his team responded to that first loss.
“We did fine,” Hayes said. “Actually (Friday), we played good enough to win, but it was one of those games when the ball wasn’t going in for us.”
It was going into the net Saturday.
Besides Hatfield’s hat trick, the Redbirds got goals from Katie Kercher, Lindsey Kistenmacher and Morgan Rauscher.
“It was good to see our girls respond the way they did,” Hayes said. “To have to turn around and get up this morning for a 90-minute bus ride and to do it with hardly any time to warm up showed a lot.”
“Not only was Althoff our first loss, but it was the first time we had trailed this season.”
Alton started the scoring early and maintained a steady flow of goals against the Crimsons.
In the second minute of play Kercher received a through-ball from Sydney Schmidt and scored on a breakaway to make it 1-0.
The Hatfield got in on the act and made it 2-0.
“We had told (Hatfield) just a few minutes before that the goalie was playing high,” Hayes said.
It didn’t take the sophomore standout long to take advantage of the situation. She lofted a long chip shot over the Jacksonville goalie from about 40 yards out to make it 2-0 in the 29th minute.
Two minutes later, Hatfield scored from an assist by Kistenmacher to make it 3-0 at halftime.
Following a Crimsons goal in the 50th minute, Kistenmacher took an assist from Alaina Nasello to make it 4-1 in the 61st minute.
Nasello took the ball into the left corner, cut her defender and hit a crossing back across the goal mouth to Kristenmacher, who one-timed the ball into the back of the net after making a 30-yard run from midfield to the far post.
“That was really a nice goal,” Hayes said. “(Nasello) did a good job keeping the ball alive and crossing it and Kistenmacher’s run was perfectly timed.”
Hatfield scored her third goal of the game six minutes later. Her kick from outside the penalty area was deflected off the Jacksonville wall back to her and she buried the shot to make it 5-1.
Hatfield, a sophomore, has scored 11 goals on the seson to go with six assists. Nasello has seven goals and five assists and Kercher has six goals and one assist.
Saturday, Alton outshot the Crimsons 16-5.
Rauscher finished the Redbirds scoring in the 67th minute. She turned a defender inside and then scored from about 19 yards to make it 6-1. Jacksonville added a restart goal in the closing minutes.
“It was a good one to get,” Hayes said. “Now, we have to move on to a tough week.”
The Redbirds play Tuesday at home against Belleville East and then play host to Collinsville Thursday in a pair of Southwestern Conference games.
