Seven days, five games. It’s not an easy task for any soccer club, but the Lady Indians proved triumphant, even under pressure, tallying four wins — including three shutouts — in the last week to tighten their grip on the conference. From the young forward line to the solid upper classmen establishing themselves on defense, every one of the Lady Indians is proven that Indian River is a force to be reckoned with this season.

Imposing 7-0 and 9-0 wins over Sussex Tech and Red Lion Christian Academy, respectively, and a 3-1 trounce over Mount Pleasant, helped record some more checks in the win column last week for IR, while their sole loss of the season, so far, came last Thursday against undefeated Caesar Rodney, with a final of 0-4. The ladies turned it around, though, finishing the run of games with a 7-0 shutout this past Tuesday, hosting Seaford. The score holds as a potent reminder of the ferocity the Lady Indians brought to the pitch Tuesday night, as they nailed the uprights a total of seven times for a number of close calls.

Freshman midfielder Miranda Warrington started the night off, drilling the ball to the back of the Seaford net within the first five minutes of the game. Junior forward Courtney Lake followed up with a goal of her own in the 23rd minute. Not even three minutes later, Morgan Warrington added another. Kaitlin Forte marked two goals and Marlena Schleifer and Sarah Purdum each added one before the final whistle sounded.

Midfield and defense kept the ball on the favorable half of the field for IR, as senior goalkeeper Taylor Mushrush didn’t register a single touch on the ball in her 71 minutes between the posts.

Head coach Steve Kilby commended the dominant midfield and defense, cemented by the upperclassmen on the team. “When you look at our senior mids, Michelle Giorgilli and Marlena Schleifer,” he said, “they’ve done an outstanding job winning the ball before it gets into our defensive third. Then you have Erin Kortvelesy and Jenna McKone, our outside backs. No team is able to penetrate with them storming the flanks. Any ball that’s served in, Sarah Purdum cleans it up. She has really good vision on the field.” Purdum’s decisiveness and well-played ball led to Forte’s first score late in the first half.

Freshman Michaella Evans has wasted no time fitting right in with her niche at defense.

“Our defense is a brick wall,” she said with a grin. “It’s all about communication. We work with each other and we have great speed back there.”

“Our defense is really aggressive,” added Forte. “They’re not afraid to step it up, and that helps a lot. They do a great job supporting the front line.”

The back-to-back games hardly posed a hindrance for IR, as early training in the season prepped the team for the stint of matches. “We had a month of preseason with no games,” said Kilby, “and we put a lot of fitness into that month. I think that’s paying dividends for us now. When we do train between games, it’s got to be light. We’ll play back to back, sometimes barely getting a break, but these girls put everything they have into the games.”

The sudden turnarounds are surprisingly not too taxing on the girls, who use the impetus to their advantage. “It’s intense sometimes,” said Forte, “but we get right back in the swing of things once the whistle starts.”

“It’s all about being an athlete and being committed to the sport,” Evans added. “We all know CR is good. They pull a lot of talented players upstate. We know we have to play our best against them, and I think we held our own against them, for the most part. Games like this one [against Seaford], though, really get our momentum back up.”

Kilby was satisfied with the recent victories, but has his eyes fixed on the next task, as he prepared his girls for Woodbridge on Thursday, April 24 (after Coastal Point press deadline). The Lady Indians will return back to their home field at the old high school on Tuesday, April 29 to host Delmar at 7 p.m. Delmar’s only loss of the season as of Wednesday has been to Dover, who lost to the Lady Indians 4-1 at the start of the season.

“It’s always good to win,” said Kilby, not wanting the shutout streak to get into the girls’ heads. “The more wins we get, the better our seeding in the tournament, and we definitely want to get the best draw we can.”

Keeping on track, he remains focus and congratulates his team as they hone in on the last three weeks of the season. “Again, talking about not letting the ball through, you look at the effort of those center mids, and our outside backs. They’re all just doing a great job. These girls are playing great.”