Wheaton Academy storms to lead

Glenbard South couldn't shut down Wheaton Academy during Thursday's Metro Suburban Conference girls soccer game in Wheaton.

The weather could.

After two lightning delays totaling nearly an hour, the game was suspended with 23:32 remaining in the first half. The Warriors were leading comfortably 3-0.

"It's frustrating to be up 3-0 and not be able to finish it," Wheaton Academy coach Dave Underwood said. "We were hoping to get it to halftime so it's an official game, because it's just hard to reschedule. It just didn't happen."

The game was initially delayed with 24:46 left in the first half. After more than a 20-minute delay, the teams returned to play, but another lightning bolt only allowed the game to continue for a little longer than a minute. The weather ultimately wouldn't cooperate so the officials decided to suspend the game.

"I felt like we had more opportunities than they did, but we couldn't capitalize," Glenbard South junior midfielder Julia Rausch said. "They finished theirs. I think we had possession more of the time, which was promising, but giving up those goals was frustrating."

Wheaton Academy sophomore Gretchen Pearson possessed deep in one of the corners and then crossed the ball to Jamie Netzley, who sent it in for the first goal of the game in the fourth minute.

Junior Gabi LaMantia then made it 2-0 and 3-0 very quickly, scoring an unassisted goal, and then scoring one quite similar to the first one, but this one coming from sophomore Izzy McNally. Rather quickly it was 3-0 and only a little more than 10 minutes had ticked off the clock.

LaMantia has really come on this season as she's continued to see her role change. In now her third season as a varsity player, she's transitioned from center back as a freshman to a defensive holding midfielder last spring to an attacking midfielder-type player today.

"She's come along really well," Underwood said. "Having now played in our system for three years, she has a good understanding of what we do and what we want her to do. She's really playing well to her strengths and she's really good with the ball to her feet so we'd like to see her score more often, like tonight."

Glenbard South, which was playing for the first time since March 27, didn't necessarily play poorly. What the Raiders unfortunately did do was succumb to Wheaton Academy's counterattack.

"We actually had the better of possession and better of pressure, but they just got us on the counter," Glenbard South coach Glen Eggert said. "They got on our end six times and scored three times because we just got caught flat in back."

He hopes they can execute better when the game resumes. A date has yet to be determined.

"We had a few shots that we passed up, but hopefully they'll learn from it," Eggert said. "It becomes a matter of if they can maintain intensity and combine it with good shape defensively."