Milan Soccer Pulls Off Third Straight Shutout

The Milan Big Reds girls’ soccer team beat the Flat Rock Rams 3-0 Monday night to stay unbeaten on the season.  Milan (3-0) has kept its opponents off the scoreboard through all three games of the young season.

Milan started the evening on its heels, playing most of the first half in their defensive zone.  Flat Rock got some good shots on goal early, but keeper Erin Jinna was up to the task.  The Milan keeper kept her team in the game with some solid saves.

“[Jinna’s] a great goal keeper.  She has yet to have to perform, but she did make some today.  She’s a premier level keeper,” said head coach Simon Evans.

“We made a change in the mid-field that would help us control it.  I pulled one of my forwards back, Abby Billau; she was getting behind their defense over and over again, so I didn’t want to pull her back, but we needed to control mid-field,” said Evans.

After a few second half adjustments by Evans, Milan’s offense came alive.  Bailey Van Harren opened and closed the scoring with two goals, with Emily Harris’ lone tally of the night sandwiched in between.

“We just talked about how we weren’t setting it up how we should be [at halftime].  We talked about how we should get to the ball and talk more.  We didn’t want to lose, so we had to step it up,” said Van Harren.

The up-tempo offense kept Flat Rock on the defensive for most of the second half.  Jinna saw less come her way late, and the few balls that did cross mid-field were kicked back across by an aggressive Big Red defense.

The junior varsity team won 4-0 earlier in the day.  Kathy Lalone scored two goals, and Sam Coon and Delaney Walther each added one for the Big Reds.

The team travels to St. Mary Catholic Central on Wednesday, April 13.