Dykstra's strong effort not enough for St. Edward

Being a soccer goalkeeper can be taxing on the mind. It's hard to spend long stretches watching your offense on the other end of the field, and then all of a sudden, bam!

Make a big play. Stop the opponent from scoring.

That would accurately describe St. Edward goalkeeper Paige Dykstra's Wednesday afternoon in her team's 1-0 nonconference loss to Nazareth Academy at the Elgin Sports Complex.

Dykstra, a senior, made 9 saves, including 6 in the second half that kept Nazareth from getting any insurance goals, and thus providing the spark her offense would need to try for the elusive equalizer.

There was Dykstra in the 39th minute, smothering a flip shot from Roadrunners' forward Alison Salata, after taking a pass from teammate Claire Ramsey.

There she was again late in the match, getting her hands on a point-blank shot by Nazareth's Lily Franko while falling down in the 70th minute.

Heck, the only shot of consequence that she missed was Ramsey's goal in the 8th minute, but give her an A-plus for effort. On the play, Ramsey took a pass from Angelica Ariola above the 18-yard box, juked a defender as she headed right to left, then dropped a shot past a diving Dykstra into the left corner of the net.

Despite the goal, it was still quite an afternoon for Dykstra. What was her secret?

"It is difficult, obviously … I mean, I'm the last person back there, but I just think you have to stay calm," Dykstra said. "That's what I think I do. I talk to my defenders and make sure everything's set. Coming back (this season) with Kathleen (Duffy) and Casey (Gredzielski), I feel like the defense has not changed,"

St. Edward (1-1) had plenty of chances to score Wednesday, despite a stout Nazareth back line and the fact that senior forward Chelsea Gnan was ailed by her quadriceps she tweaked in Tuesday's 5-0 win over Hampshire.

Gnan got close to equalizing in the 25th minute, taking a pass from fellow senior Megan Kearney above the 18-yard box in the middle and firing a shot to the center of the net that Roadrunners' goalkeeper Peggy Masterson snared out of the air.

Four minutes later, Gnan executed a pop-fly pass to freshman forward Bella Uscila in the middle of the 18-yard box, who promptly kissed it off the goal post's left corner.

And a minute after that, another freshman, Madison Knott, nearly scored after corralling a corner kick and firing a point-blank shot that bounced off Masterson's hands and was ultimately cleared.

Gnan was disappointed by the loss, especially considering the fact that the Green Wave beat Nazareth a year ago 2-1.

"Yeah, it's tough," she said. "We're still getting back in the swing of it. They were really good at winning balls out of the air and we're starting a lot of freshmen. (Nazareth) really pushed us to get better. I think it's really a learning game for us."

To the Green Wave's credit, they fought for the equalizing goal until the very end. In the 61st minute, Duffy launched a free kick from off the right sideline that bounced off the left corner of the goal post, eliciting an "Ooohhh" from the crowd on the sun-splashed 70-degree afternoon.

In the 77th minute, another golden opportunity presented itself as Duffy perfectly placed a free kick from the exact center of the field to a streaking sophomore midfielder Cece Kochanek. But unfortunately for St. Edward, Kochanek was ruled offside. Nazareth ran out the clock to secure the victory.

Green Wave coach Tim Brieger implored his team at halftime to pepper Masterson with shots in the first 20 minutes of the second period, with the end objective of weakening the defense enough to get at least one goal, or maybe more.

"It didn't happen, but I think losing Chelsea took away from our attack a little bit and I think we got a little one dimensional," Brieger said. "We tried to rely on the younger girls' speed to keep it simple for them, and I think (Nazareth) was able to sit back on us and then we started pushing up and they countered us."

All that was balanced by Dykstra's efforts, in Brieger's mind.

"Paige is fantastic," he said. "It's just so much fun to watch her grow and develop over the past three years. People don't see her quick foot speed. She gets the balls, she's got these soft hands. I think she keeps us in a lot of games."

St. Edward finished with 10 shots, 6 on goal, and 5 corner kicks.