Elk Grove starts season with win
Tourney-host Elk Grove kicked off the girls soccer season on Thursday with a promising 2-1 victory over Dundee-Crown at Robert E. Haskell Stadium in the opening match of the inaugural Elk Grove Soccer Invite.
The Grenadiers struck first at 12 minutes when Amanda Sitkowski ran onto Emily Sitkowski's inward-swinging corner.
But it was Maram Safi who provided the eventual game-winner in the 24th minute.
"It was a pretty good game for a first game of the season," said Grens coach Dan Klaus, whose club will play York on Monday as tourney plays continues.
"We got off to a slow start. But we kind of got ourselves into the game after that first goal and played really well the rest of the first half," said junior Emma Slattery, the lone returning starter in the Grens' rebuilt back line. "We have a freshmen (Megan Murray), sophomore (Gabriella Mauro) and two juniors, myself and Emma Simmons in the back, and although we don't have a lot of size, we did well in our first game together."
Slattery and her teammates were on their back foot during in the opening quarter-hour.
The Chargers had most of the play, consistently finding front-runners Braylin Mensik and Anna Kieltyka.
"Considering this was the first time we've been outdoors, I thought we came out very strong - connecting passes and getting forward," said Chargers coach Sebastian Falinski, now in his 10th year in charge. "But after that first goal, we struggled a little bit and it led to their second goal before the break."
Safi's goal was a thing of beauty, with the junior finding the back of the net just two minutes after being brought on.
Slattery initiated things with a lovely ball out of the back which found teammate Leila Aguilar. She cut back to find space before putting the ball onto the foot of Safi, who calmly finished past keeper Diana Santillan-Ceja, who had no chance on this close range shot.
The Chargers opened brightly after the break, beginning with a quality opportunity on frame from Katelyn Skibinski, which forced Grens keeper Rachel Kandefer to make the save.
Taylor Coffman drew her club within 1 in the 58th minute. The D-C senior bent her left-footed free kick around the Grens' wall, and just past a diving Kandefer at the near post to make it 2-1.
"At the half, we regrouped, and came out so much stronger in the second half, which was a good sign for us in our very first game of the year," Coffman said.
The 58th-minute strike inspired the D-C attack and just afterward, a Mensik attempt, on the turn, was stopped, as was her 25-yard blast at Kandefer.
Grens freshmen Emily Sitkowski enjoyed a nice afternoon in her varsity debut and just missed making it 3-1 in the 76th minute.
But the hosts showed their mettle by closing out their opponents.
"We've got to clean some things up in the back," Falinski said. "But on the other end, our attack looked pretty good at times. We just weren't sharp enough in the final third to get a few more quality shots at their keeper."
The Chargers will meet York on Saturday at 10 a.m.
Buffalo Grove 1, Hinsdale Central 1: All the scoring came in the first half from Buffalo Grove's Macy Floro (Zoey Robertson) and Hinsdale Central's Haley Arnold.
Zugey Olvera (BG) and Kaitlin Barbour (HC) handled the goalkeeping duties.
Glenbard West 1, Schaumburg 0: Emma Walsh's PK in the second half made the host Hilltoppers a winner in a nonconference opener for both teams.