Girls soccer: St. Charles East downs Loyola
St. Charles East's girls soccer team began group play in the Naperville Invite tourney with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Loyola Friday afternoon at Barrington Community Stadium.
Hannah Kolb and Megan O'Neal put away the Ramblers (7-6-0) with two sensational goals late in the second half to pull ahead of coach Craig Snowers' club which may have been showing signs of fatigue after playing its second tourney game in as many days.
"It was a fair result, and St. Charles deserved the win, but you saw the inequities of the schedule in this tournament with us playing our 144th minute of soccer, and St. Charles just their 66th. We were running out of gas and some of that, of course, had a lot to do with the way they were playing," said the Loyola head coach.
Loyola had defeated Palatine the night before 1-0, and was looking to advance into next Thursday's quarterfinals when it went on top in the 10th minute on a goal by Stephanie Ramsey who was put through by teammate Maggie Brett.
"Stephanie had been very quiet with her scoring, but has now put five into the back of the net in our last six games," said Snower.
"That was a lovely goal they scored. (Loyola) came out to play, and they moved the ball well, and showed a lot of style with their play, and were able to capitalize on the play of their two players up top (Ramsey and Brett) in the first half," said Saints (7-1-3) head coach Paul Jennison, whose club will finish pool play Saturday against Palatine.
"It was an excellent game, and I thought we really came into it in the second half, and although we created some glorious chances, and didn't find a way to put any of them in, I knew we had a goal or two in us - it was just going to take us a little time to find it."
The Saints would lose their top player, Chantel Carranza, when she and the Ramblers' Molly Tessler each went hard into a 50-50 near the midline but after spending some time on the sidelines to regroup, the junior would return for the second half.
Carranza, along with Kolb, O'Neal and Madison Cady, as well as outside backs Allison Strauss and Tory Schumann did all that they could to solve the Ramblers' 3-5-2 formation, which, when the Saints got into the attacking third, saw them trying to unlock eight as the Ramblers began to sit in more and more to protect their lead.
"It was a little tough attacking them in the second half, and for awhile, especially in the first half, we kept playing the ball into pressure instead of using this big, wide field and its width. Once we did that, things began to open up for us," said O'Neal.
Kolb would equalize at 62 minutes with an unstoppable cracker from the left side which stung the gloves of keeper Maggie Avery on the way into the back of the net.
O'Neal would find the eventual game-winner when Kayla Villa gave her a superb ball up the left side to set the senior free and with Avery coming off of her line to cut the angle O'Neal's cool and composed brilliant finish gave the Saints the lead for the first time.
"Kayla gave me a great ball. I had to score," said O'Neal.
The Saints would survive a nervous moment in the closing minute when the Ramblers' talented forward Brett dragged the ball across the top of the box before getting time and space but her low drive was saved by keeper Grace Griffin to preserve the win.
"I like the way the girls responded and didn't panic when we went down a goal, and with the way they kept creating and attacking in order to get ourselves those two goals and the win," said a pleased Jennison.