Grant settles down, wins in regulation
Grant didn’t need penalty kicks this time.
The Bulldogs have kicked off their season by winning their first two games. Marissa Allen scored a pair of goals and Alyssa Wilhelm tallied the other one as Grant got past Round Lake 3-1 in the Grayslake Central Rams Invitational held at Grayslake North on Tuesday.
Grant had edged Waukegan 2-1 in PKs Monday.
“It was still a challenge coming out the second day of the year,” Grant coach Michael Kennedy said. “I thought the girls had the jitters and couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.”
Round Lake (0-2) nearly struck for the game’s first goal in the 15th minute. A head ball bounced toward the goal, but Grant defender Jessica Jones kept the ball in front of her and cleared it from danger.
“Our defense played pretty good,” Kennedy said. “We’re just trying things in the back. Jones made a nice save on the goal line. We were doing some ball watching at the time and that’s why (Round Lake) was able to get a ball in there. We just have to track things better with our runners.”
Grant’s defense also included Leah Nehila, Brett Aichholzer and Kelli Varney.
About a minute after Jones’ defensive gem, Wilhelm scored off a mistake by the Panthers’ defense.
“I was just trying to get the ball on net,” Wilhelm said. “I was making a run. The turf being smooth and the ball moving fast makes it hard to get (a shot off). It was a matter of figuring out how fast the ball was moving.”
Round Lake had another good scoring opportunity at the half-hour mark, when Morgin Evins fired a blast off the crossbar.
But then Allen finished a pass from Jenna Pecorini in the 37th minute and netted her second goal of the game and third of the season, unassisted, in the 47th minute.
Evins broke Grant’s shutout bid in the 63rd minute, as she buried a free kick from 35 yards out into the back corner.
“If we could have scored on those (early) chances, it could have changed the game for us,” Round Lake coach Andres Orbe said. “Defensively, we had to change some things up in the back because of an injury.”
The Panthers played without defender Elizabeth Salgado, who broke her collarbone against Grayslake Central on Monday and will be out for the rest of the season.
Grayslake Central 1, Waukegan 0: The tournament host Rams received the game-winning goal from Emily Werfel in the 60th minute off an assist from Erin Boban.
Rams keeper Kajal Chokshi earned her first clean shot by making 5 stops, as the Rams improved to 2-0.
“I thought for the last 20 minutes we played very well,” Grayslake Central coach Mike McCaulou said. “We did things that we were supposed to do. We were composed and relaxed. We knocked the ball around well, switched sides and found a way to get the ball into the net.”
Grayslake Central takes on Grant for the championship at noon today. Round Lake goes up against Waukegan for third place at 10 a.m.