O'Connor keeping Buffalo Grove in MSL East race
Despite all its injuries this spring, the girls soccer team from Buffalo Grove has kept pace with Mid-Suburban East Division leader Hersey.
Sara O'Connor's double helped give the Bison (8-2-1, 4-2-0, 12 points) a vital 2-0 win over Schaumburg on Wednesday as Buffalo Grove continues to chase the Huskies, whose 4-1 victory over Prospect helps them stay 7 points clear of Pat Dudle's side with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
"We're just trying to find a way to get 3 points each time out to make that season finale with Hersey an important one," said Dudle, who has beautifully mixed and matched his roster thus far as the Bison continue to deal with roster issues. "Our defense played very well tonight, and Cassie (Berman) made a big save when we needed it. And we're very fortunate to have Sara continuing to provide some great goals - I just hope we can get her some help when we finally get healthy."
The Eastern Kentucky-bound O'Connor, who turned in a marvelous season last season as the Bison's keeper, has been the target player in a 4-5-1 formation since the season's start. And against the visiting Saxons, the senior showed her stuff, frequently taking on two sometimes three defenders.
"We've had a ton of injuries, plus we have a lot of young players, but we've dealt with all of that pretty well," said O'Connor. "Tonight one of our young players, Erin Kleczynski, was responsible for my second goal. And that's one of the reason we are winning the games we need to."
BG made a lively start thanks to some quality play in the middle from Georgette Topalis stout play from its back line as Maria Hamilton, Gina Bolis, Dani Bleichman and Danielle Allaire helped keep the Saxons (1-9-2, 0-5-1) far away from Berman.
Despite their current status near the bottom of the MSL table, the Saxons have played several of the top clubs in the area very well, especially of late, witnessed by a 1-1 draw with Conant in addition to 2-0 losses to St. Charles East and Naperville Central.
"Our effort has been very good, as has our work rate against a lot of very good teams, but tonight is probably the first time we didn't have any fight in our game," said the Saxons' Brittany Reinhart, who showed plenty of reasons why coach Greg Charvat has her wearing the captain's armband along with Kennedy Irmen. "This is a very young team we have here, and there's a lot of on-the-job training going on for them. But nobody on this team is giving up, everyone is playing as hard as they can. It's just right now, we're having trouble putting the ball into the back of the net, and maybe when we start doing that, things will turn around for us."
The most dangerous chance of the first period came from O'Connor, who rattled the back post in the 37th minute after missing wide twice before, once after Kaylee Gerhart and Topalis helped create a chance.
The Saxons opened the second half crisply and had the Bison under pressure off the opening whistle when Katie Farb set Cassidy Watson free - but Berman came off her line to squash the chance.
O'Connor buried her 25-yard free kick from the left side into the far right corner in the 53rd minute, then finished her close-range effort with a sublime touch the other way after both Kara Tyner and Kleczynski started it all near the midline.
The Bison seemed content to protect their lead after O'Connor's second goal at 57 minutes. But without a sensational save from Berman on freshman Dana Kiszkowski, who was put through by Watson, the 1-goal advantage could have been cut in half.
"Greg always has a team that plays hard, and tonight was no different, so we had to be ready from the start in order to continue to give us a chance to win out and see what happens at the end of the season," said Dudle.
Next up for the Bison is Rolling Meadows this Friday on the road, while Schaumburg enjoys a few days off before playing Prospect next Monday in Mt. Prospect.
Hersey 4, Prospect 1: Gina Miklasz, Abby Wendell and Grace Kozurek each had 1 goal and 1 assist to help power a Huskies win in MSL East play. Jessica Schmidt also scored for Hersey.
Conant 7, Meadows 0: Emily Mazurek had 2 goals and 1 assist and teammate Leah Celarek had 2 assists and 2 goals as the Cougars powered to a 7-0 halftime lead. Sidney O'Keeffe and Kaylin Feeley also scored for Conant.
Fremd 1, Hoffman Estates 0: Vikings senior Katie Zara had the game's only goal as Fremd earned a win in MSL West play. Kelsey Stone earned a shutout for Fremd.
Palatine 5, Elk Grove 0: Kellie Reynolds scored twice and assisted on a goal, and Katie Conklin had a goal and 2 assists to help lead the Pirates.