In her third varsity season, Reavis’ Isabella Lopez is stepping into a vocal role as one of her team’s captains.
“I’ve become more talkative,” Lopez said after a 3-0 home loss to Oak Forest on April 16.
“She’s a true leader,” Rams coach Konrad Dziedzic said. “She is starting to feel more comfortable vocalizing concerns and holding herself and teammates accountable.”
Though the midfielder did not find the back of the net against the Bengals, she had a team-best four goals heading into this week.
“She is by far our best player on the field,” Dziedzic said. “She is pretty much our offense and defense — she’s everywhere on the field.”
An early injury sent three-year varsity Ram Ashley Gomez to the bench, forcing a different gameplan against Oak Forest. An early 2-0 deficit proved too much to overcome.
“We have the technique, we have the skill, we do everything — it’s just the want and desire to win,” Lopez said.
“It made it a tougher hill to climb,” Dziedzic said. “I think they lost faith and shut down after the second goal.”
Lopez lives and breathes soccer. When she’s not in-season with the Rams, she plays for the Evolution Soccer Club in Naperville, where she learned much of her technique.
“I’ve been playing all my life,” Lopez said. “Playing club, I learned how to use my body properly and keep it clean. You don’t go for the player, you go for the ball and keep it safe and (play) not to hurt anyone.”
In her leadership role, she tries to share some of what she learns from the club team with her Rams teammates. But her biggest message involves believing in each other.
“Have confidence in themselves,” Lopez said. “They definitely should not be afraid and to take their shots when they need to step to the ball.”
Dziedzic would also like to see Lopez take some of her own advice and be more aggressive on offense.
“She needs to take more shots,” Dziedzic said. “She’s trying to feed her teammates all the time. But it’s OK for her to create her own sometimes and try to score as well.”
Junior goalkeeper Kaylamine Flores made three saves in the loss for Reavis (6-3-1, 2-2 South Suburban Red).
Reavis matched last year’s win total with a 3-0 win against Shepard on April 14. Despite the Oak Forest loss, the Rams remain upbeat.
“We are going to go back to practice and talk through what we need to do differently, especially with attacking, which we did just the previous two games,” Lopez said.
“We’re going to try to refocus and just forget this game,” Dziedzic said. “Hopefully after a weekend off, we can start fresh. Our target is still to win the conference and we have a good opportunity.”