Girls soccer: Effort's there, but Warren falls short vs. Lake Forest
After a quick start in the North Suburban Lake race, Warren's girls soccer team seemingly had a leg up on the competition.
How quickly things can change.
The Blue Devils suffered a recent road loss to Libertyville, and suffered another setback Tuesday, falling 3-2 at Lake Forest.
"We had a tough loss last week against Libertyville," said Warren coach Ryan McCabe, who saw his group slip to 7-6-1 overall and 3-2 in the Lake. "We came out flat and didn't have any intensity or urgency at all during that game.
"We talked about it a lot over the last few days. I thought it was good to see the girls come out against Lake Forest with a little bit of urgency and passion. They showed up. It would've been easy to sit back, down 3-1 and there goes our shot at conference. Instead, we kept clawing back. We did have several decent opportunities."
Lake Forest (6-5-1, 2-3) snapped a 5-game losing streak with the victory. The Scouts were able to use the wind to their advantage in the first half.
The Blue Devils were hoping for a similar advantage in the second half.
"We knew that that coming out we couldn't give (Lake Forest) anything easy," McCabe said. "We kind of gifted them a couple of goals. To their credit, (Lake Forest) earned the free kicks and they did a nice job putting them on frame. Sometimes, that's all it takes. We definitely didn't make it easy for ourselves."
Purdue-bound Paige Bourne had a goal and an assist to lead the way for the Scouts. She hit a wind-supported free kick from 40 yards in the 25th minute to put Lake Forest up 1-0.
Alliyah Parker tied the game with a penalty kick for the Blue Devils in the 36th minute, after Teagon Albert was tripped up in the penalty area.
Bourne set up another free kick two minutes later from long range. This time Sheridan Bufe took a loose ball and scored for a 2-1 Lake Forest lead.
The Scouts raised their lead to 3-1 in the 54th minute. Bourne served a pass to Delaney Williams, who beat the Blue Devils' defense and scored on a breakaway.
Parker brought Warren back within 3-2 with her second goal in the 78th minute.
"We just weren't connecting the passes," Parker said. "We had some shots. Lake Forest had a defense that was pretty solid."
Last season, Lake Forest lost to Warren on a goal in the final seconds. But the Scouts were able to hang on this time.
"(Warren) beat us last year," Lake Forest coach Ty Stuckslager. Warren has great speed - they work and half of it is measuring the work rate. I thought we matched it and won a lot of 50/50 balls. I give credit for our defense for holding on."