MENDOTA — With the wind howling at its face throughout the first half, the Rochelle Lady Hub varsity soccer team fought admirably to keep the Mendota Trojans off the scoreboard Tuesday evening, when the purple and white took the field seeking its first victory of the season.

While the Trojans possessed the ball for most of the first half, Rochelle succeeded in fending off a barrage of Mendota attacks. Behind a strong effort from senior goalkeeper Danica Ward, who made several tough saves throughout the first half, the Lady Hubs remained in a scoreless tie with the Trojans at halftime. Mendota managed to break through in the second half, however, scoring twice while shutting down the Rochelle offense to secure a 2-0 win over the Lady Hubs.

“I think we’re progressing pretty well given that we have a really young squad this season,” head coach Brad Male said. “We have some girls who are playing in some spots that they aren’t used to playing in and they were able to keep the game scoreless in the first half, which I was really pleased with. We still have things we need to work on, but I think we’re coming along.”

Rochelle (0-3, 0-0 Interstate 8) was fighting not only the wind on Tuesday, but the injury bug as well, as the Lady Hubs played without three girls including junior midfielder Emma Kennay and sophomore defender Abby Bozinovich. Despite being short-handed, Rochelle fought valiantly to keep the Trojans off the scoreboard during the first half, where the senior goalkeeper Ward collected multiple clutch saves and overcame a brief injury of her own to stay in the match.

“I hope [Dani] can continue to move forward and play how she did today,” Male said. “She kept a lot of balls out of the net for us and I think our defenders can work better with her in order to keep all of them on the same page. If they can do that, I think we’ll work together a lot better.”

After numerous close calls around the Rochelle net, Mendota finally broke through with its first goal of the match during the 51st minute, where a right-footed shot from the Trojan front line floated above the outstretched hand of Ward and into the goal. Mendota capitalized on a through ball from the front line soon after, with the Trojans beating Rochelle on the back line and scoring in the 62nd minute to command a two-goal lead, which held for the rest of the game.

Although the Lady Hubs had the wind at their backs during the second half, Rochelle was unable to find a consistent attack, as the Mendota defense was quick to clear and steal balls away from a young Lady Hub offensive unit. Junior midfielder Makayla Lara put a pair of hard shots on goal late in the second half, but the Trojans successfully stopped both attempts.

“We’re dealing with some injuries right now and we’re hoping to get everyone back healthy and find more continuity up top,” Male said. “We have a lot of freshmen on the team and they’re the future of our program, so we’re hoping they can continue progressing the way they have been.”