Girls soccer: Hersey steps up at Prospect
Hersey's girls soccer team did its best to throw a wrench into the conference championship hopes of Prospect's girls soccer team on Wednesday at George Gattas Memorial Stadium.
Sitting near the bottom of the Mid-Suburban League table, the Huskies stunned the division-leading Knights 1-0 in a rain-shortened match in Mt. Prospect.
"Obviously it's disappointing to come out of here on the short end of a result that we had hoped to have end in our favor to keep a good distance ahead of Buffalo Grove," said Prospect coach Tom Froats.
Froats and Hersey coach Darren Llewellyn waited nearly 90 minutes after a lightning delay in the 59th minute, but the game did not resume.
"I know if I were Tom, I'd want to wait out it out and try to play out this match, but we never got the all-clear to go back out and the weather didn't appear to be getting any better in the next few hours," said Llewellyn, whose club weathered a different kind of storm in the opening quarter-hour before finding its form.
"We had a terrific start tonight," said Froats, "but we weren't as sharp and clean as we needed to be with our final touch, or in their end. And the one quality chance they had ended up in the back of our net."
A vibrant attack led by Ella Marzolf, Amy Novak and Aly Kobler helped Prospect (5-2-2, 4-1-2) early. Still, half-chances for Marzolf, Faith Fitzsimmons and Ashley Welk were the only opportunities against the Hersey (3-9-2, 1-4-1) and keeper Andrea Canon.
"We had our troubles early on, but as the game went on, and we gained more confidence along the back," said senior Claire Niemczyk, one of the few veterans on the Huskies' young roster. "And on the other end, we were able to connect some passes, and get that first goal - while almost adding one or two more after that."
A communication breakdown inside the Prospect box on a long ball sent into the area resulted in some nifty work from Claire Callahan, who was rewarded for her high work rate when she collected the loose ball, tricked her way free of a defender and used a sublime touch the other way to finish past keeper Mehgan Rickett at 32 minutes.
"That's our first real quality attempt on frame in our last five games, so it was great to see us put one in," said Llewellyn.
Callahan nearly doubled the Hersey advantage four minutes later, and again just before intermission when a Niemczyk free kick spilled free to her. Callahan drove the attempt over the bar.
Prospect senior Andi Marfilius raced up the left side before driving her attempt toward the near post, only to have Canon make a sure-handed save. That helped energize Prospect's attack for the next 6-7 minutes, and the Knights generated three corners.
But Niemczyk and her teammates along the back line for Hersey, now brimming with confidence, defended those set piece attempts and settled down until the delay came shortly after.
"It was a good game and win for us, and one that we all needed after some tough losses," said Niemczyk.
Buffalo Grove 3, Schaumburg 1: Schaumburg's Gina D'Orazio got the scoring started, but Buffalo Grove came up with 3 unanswered goals to earn an MSL victory.
The Bison scores came from Dani Bleichman, Georgette Topalis and Danielle Allaire; Gina Bolis had 2 assists and Cassie Berman stopped 3 shots for Buffalo Grove.
Rolling Meadows 2, Conant 1: Rachel Raymer had Conant's goal, on an assist from Stephanie Mazurek, but the host Mustangs prevailed in MSL play.