Benet soccer player Keira Stone was thirsting for a goal.
The freshman midfielder didn’t score during the first five games of her high school career, just missing on several shots. But the drought ended Saturday when Stone redirected a cross from junior forward Ivana Vukas into Nazareth’s goal with 37:10 left in the first half.
“It was kind of like a weight off my shoulders almost to finally get that goal,” Stone said. “I’ve been wanting it, and hopefully it can lead to more this season.”
It already has. Stone scored again 26 minutes later.
“She has been active all over the field,” Benet coach Gerard Oconer said. “We changed our formation a little bit just to give her a little bit more freedom to get into dangerous spaces and kind of become more of a goal scorer for us. That’s exactly what happened.”
Stone’s breakthrough was only part of her dominant effort in the Redwings’ 3-1 East Suburban Catholic Conference victory in Lisle.
Stone and freshman midfielder Ashley Polanco, who scored the other goal, give Benet (3-2-1, 1-0) a potent and youthful one-two punch in the midfield. Polanco has a team-high six goals, but Stone has been the primary playmaker, often wreaking havoc with her offensive and defensive capabilities.
“She just impacts the game on both ends of the field,” Oconer said. “Once other players kind of get a sense for where she wants to play the ball, I think she’s going to make a lot of our players look very good because she’s got great vision, her head is always up, she’s always looking to try to slip the forwards through.
“The timing of the runs is a little bit off right now. So that’s certainly something that we have to work on.”
Yet the performance against Nazareth was an encouraging sign for Benet. Stone’s second goal, which increased the lead to 3-0 at the 10:56 mark of the first half, was a terrific example of teamwork.
Sophomore defender Audrey Eiseman booted a fierce diagonal cross from the left wing to the far post, where the onrushing Stone volleyed it home.
“I knew she was coming up on the right wing and she was probably going to be somewhere around there,” Eiseman said. “It was a hard shot to take. So I was like, ‘I’ll just whip it in there, hopefully find her on the back post.’”
Stone anticipated Eiseman’s pass.
“She took a touch, and I saw her pick her head up,” Stone said. “I knew she was going to cross it, and I can rely on her to do that.
“Then I kind of made a run and hoped that I could get there, and I just tapped it in.”
Stone is being slightly modest in her description of that play. Eiseman said Stone is playing beyond her years.
“You go from club to this, and it’s a bit of a bigger stage, so it’s hard to get used to,” Eiseman said. “But she’s handled it really well.
“She just has such confidence on the ball. She brings such a calmness on the field. You can trust her 100%, and that makes her really easy to play with. Plus, she’s so technically gifted, it’s insane.”
People are noticing. Stone was invited to participate in the U15 Ontario Provincial Screening Competition camp in Toronto last month. She made the Ontario team, which will have two weekend training camps before playing three matches May 16-18.
Stone is eligible to play in the Canadian program because her grandfather John Culkin is Canadian.
“I went last year, but it doesn’t go anywhere for 14-year-olds,” Stone said. “This year it can lead to other stuff, though. There are scouts from the national team.
“First time, it was nerve-wracking, but everyone there was super nice, and it helped me adjust.”
Stone has already adjusted to playing varsity soccer.
“It’s harder to compete against the older players because they’re calm and they know what to do, and some are also bigger and stronger and sometimes faster,” she said. “But you’ve just got to be calm and play your game.”
How far can that take Stone and the Redwings?
“If we can figure out how to score some goals and be more clinical in front of goal,” she said, “we can go a long way.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
