BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 20 nationally-ranked Illinois soccer team bounced back from a tough loss by routing the University of Oregon, 5-0, on Sunday morning to conclude play at the LSU Tournament. Senior midfielder Jackie Guerra recorded her first collegiate tally, the game-winner, while sophomore Megan Pawloski added two goals and classmate Vanessa DiBernardo and senior Julie Ewing each contributed a mark in the blowout.

“It was a well-rounded effort offensively and defensively today, and we had the commitment to put numbers in the box,” Illinois head coach Janet Rayfield said. “With Jannelle [Flaws] recording an assist, and Julie Ewing and Jackie Guerra contributing goals, today was a tribute to the dynamic ability of our offense. The difference today was that we had everyone contributing and more on the defensive side of play as well.”

Guerra put Illinois ahead, 1-0, in the 17th minute, calling off Pawloski as she ran onto a loose ball 25 yards from the goal before blasting a shot that deflected off the cross bar and fell into the back of the net. The strike marks Guerra’s first goal as an Illini and her first conversion on eight shots during the 2011 season.

“Honestly, I know our whole team has been working hard and I just wanted to set the right mentality for the first half,” Guerra said. “It felt amazing, I worked really hard this summer and it felt really rewarding to get it done.”

After 23 minutes of scoreless play, Ewing doubled the Illini lead with five minutes left in the first half. Freshman Stephanie Pouse placed a pass into the center of the Oregon’s box, where Ewing ran onto the ball and shot from 10 yards away. Following the goal, Ewing has six point on the season courtesy of a single-season career-best three tallies, while Pouse has three points on a goal and an assist.

Pawloski joined the scoring barrage in the second half, turning the contest into a rout with consecutive goals at the 55:09 and 61:27 mark. In the 56th minute, junior Niki Read found a seam in the six-yard box to place a pass into, which Pawloski ran onto and drove a shot into the netting. Six minutes later, Jannelle Flaws crossed the ball into the box, where Pawloski one-timed a shot over the keeper to put Illinois up, 4-0. Pawloski’s two-goal game marks her first multi-goal performance since totaling both marks against Indiana during Illinois 2-1 victory over the Hoosiers on Oct. 3, 2010.

DiBernardo, the current Illini leading scorer, capped the Orange and Blue’s fourth five-goal performance of the season with her team-best ninth goal, converting a 25-yard free-kick with a shot into the left side of the netting.

While the offense produced a phenomenal game on the attack, the defense secured the contest by shutting down an Oregon team that was fighting for its first goal in two games, after previously scoring eight over its first four contests. The Illinois defense held Oregon to seven total shots, with the Ducks only managing to put two on net. When Oregon was able to line up an on-target shot, Illinois goalkeeper Steph Panozzo was there the record the save, tallying her second shutout of the season as a result.

“Our goal today was to defend as 11 and attack as 11,” said senior defender Jenna Carosio of Illinois’ approach to stopping the Ducks. “Everyone made an effort to keep the ball out of our net and, as a result, Oregon never really controlled the ball in our end. We kept pressure on them in their end and forced turnovers. It was certainly a team effort today.”

The Orange and Blue defense also held Oregon without a shot on goal in the second half, smothering the Ducks attacking unit, regardless of who was on the field. The Ducks were only able to line up accurate shots in the 24th and 42nd minutes, while two of Oregon’s three second-half attempts were well high and the other went wide of the net.

“Today it was a team effort to defend,” Rayfield said. “Maybe up until now we had been separating responsibilities from an attacking and defending standpoint. Today we saw everyone committed to both ends, while Jenna [Carosio] had a great day winning balls in air, which was huge for us. Caitlin Dombart and Kassidy Brown stepped up their game on defense as well, and they could do that because I believe they felt a sense of confidence from having their team in front of them come to defend. It was an important adjustment for us.”

Illinois outshot Oregon, 15-7, while also earning eight corner kicks to the Ducks’ four. Oregon goalie Abby Steele stopped two shots in net while both teams were called for five fouls. 

The Illini open Big Ten Conference action at Iowa, with a Sunday, Sept. 18 contest in Iowa City at 1 p.m. CT.

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