Girls soccer: Warren gets even with Lake Forest

In a recent matchup, Lake Forest's girls soccer team had earned a 1-0 victory over Warren during the PepsiCo tournament quarterfinals.

And it looked like history was repeating on Thursday.

Until, that is, Warren responded with a pair of second-half goals in stopping the Scouts 2-1.

Jamie Kwon and Alliyah Parker both scored for the Blue Devils (10-1, 2-0), and Julia Loeger had the goal for the Scouts (5-2, 1-1).

"We don't want to start behind the 8-ball like that," Warren coach Ryan McCabe said. "I think it shows the resiliency, with the girls having to come back from that. It took us a while to rebound from that because we were shell-shocked. I was hoping it wasn't a here-we-go again situation.

"We did talk about it at halftime. We got all settled, hunkered down and I thought we played well in the second half."

The Blue Devils had been forced to compete with 10 players for the majority of the previous game, and after falling 1-0 late in the first half the Blue Devils never recovered.

And on Thursday, something out of the ordinary happened again against Warren. On a back pass from one of the Blue Devils defenders, the ball found its way inside the goal. Lake Forest's Loeger was credited with the goal in the third minute.

Warren, once again, faced an uphill climb against Lake Forest.

Finally in the 64th minute, the Blue Devils found a way thanks to a numbers-forward attack. Ellen Szostak started it by striking a ball off the post; it bounced off a Scouts defender before Kwon applied her finishing touch to tie the game.

"In the first half, I was thinking 'Today, I'm going to score,' " said Kwon, with her second goal this season. "When the ball came off the post, I knew it was a perfect opportunity, so I crashed in there and hit it right in. Getting that goal made it more real. It was almost like we were winning again. With our team, once we score, it just keeps on coming."

Parker scored the game-winner in the 70th minute after taking a pass from Maddie Gryzik, placing it into an upper corner.

"I knew that I would get one," Parker said. "I was just in the right place to put it in. I'd been trying to do it all night. It's exciting for us against a good team like Lake Forest."

The Scouts had the run of play the first time around, but having both teams at even strength negated that advantage.

"It was a good match-up," Lake Forest coach Ty Stuckslager said. "I thought we had the pressure in the first half. The second half, (Warren) took it to us. We both had chances to do something to put it away and neither team did it. But it was two good teams out here leaving it all out there. We made them tired the last time and they made us tired this time around."