When Aurora Central Catholic added two freshmen and a transfer in the offseason, sophomore guard Sofia Corral knew she wouldn’t have to score as much this winter.
With that on her mind, the 5-foot-8 Corral shifted her focus to playing more of a Russell Westbrook role, wanting to do everything that she could to help the Chargers win.
The result is four triple-doubles and counting.
“I love being able to do that for my team,” said Corral, who averaged 14 points last season. “It’s been great to be able to do that for my team, help them along.
“We have a lot of new scorers, so filling out the rest of the stats has been great.”
A year ago, the Corral-led Chargers finished 18-15 and won their first regional title since the 2011-12 season.
Helping out, sophomore guard Riley Cwinski has taken a step forward offensively this season for ACC (17-5). Junior guard Anna-Marie Godina, an outside shooting specialist, transferred in from Joliet Catholic.
Freshman guards Grace Grunloh and Ella Oester also arrived on the scene.
“They do a lot more of the scoring,” ACC coach LeVada Smith said. “(Corral is) doing more facilitating and rebounding, so her scoring went down, but she picked it up in other areas.
“She’s all over the place — does a little bit of everything.”
Corral, who was voted a team captain as a sophomore, said it all starts on the defensive end.
“I’ve always been a defensive-first player,” Corral said. “That part of my game hasn’t changed at all. I’ve always had it, but I developed it more in the AAU season.
“I was thrown into my new role as a point guard and being a distributor. I can trust them with the ball. They make it easy for me. I’m really grateful that I’m able to do that.”
Corral ended the holiday tournament at Dixon with back-to-back triple-doubles. She scored 11 points in both games and had 10 or 11 assists in each game.
In a 58-43 win over IC Catholic to start the second half of the season, Corral scored 22 points and pulled down 14 rebounds.
“Sometimes, not scoring will get to me, but it’s a good reminder that it’s OK I’m not the leading scorer,” Corral said. “Basketball is not only about scoring points. There are so many different aspects.
“Having triple-doubles is proof that I don’t need to score. I can do so many other things to help my team be great.”
The Chargers followed up the regional title with a hot start to this season. Despite her team not usually even starting a senior, Corral isn’t surprised by the success.
“I expected this just from summer league and coming off regionals,” Corral said. “Our whole team had a high because we want to do that again.
“I knew some of the younger girls. They’re only a year younger than me. They all want to be great. They all want to be the best.”
Smith also knew he had talent to work with.
Getting the pieces all to fit was his biggest challenge coming into the season. While there’s several new faces on the team, half of the roster are returnees.
That has elevated the goal to get past last season’s exit, which came to eventual Class 2A state runner-up Winnebago in the sectional semifinals.
“I tell the kids to validate last year is to get there and then some,” Smith said. “Hopefully, we can get beyond that.”
Corral, for one, is up to the challenge.
“That was just the first step,” Corral said. “Our school hasn’t had a long history. The goal is to get even further than that. For me personally, that’s been the really big goal.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
