Girls soccer: Scoreless draw for Maine West, Rolling Meadows
The girls soccer teams from Maine West and Rolling Meadows fought through some nasty weather conditions in addition to one another for 80 minutes Monday afternoon, and when it was over, this annual nonconference match ended in a scoreless draw.
"This is the first time here that we haven't been on the other end of a loss, so this is a big confidence boost for this team," said Warriors coach Jeff Bishop, who has watched his club get out to its best start during his five years in charge. "We came in at 3-0-0, but this was easily our toughest opponent to date.
"Mike (Drenth) does a great job with his girls. They play hard and defend real well also, and we had to be at our best in the second half when they had the wind at their back, and they attacked with a lot of energy and numbers."
The wind roared through Robert Hoese Field, making it feel more like the middle of winter than the beginning of spring.
"It wasn't fun out there for either team, but I really feel like we played our best soccer in the second half against a team which is much closer to our level of talent right now after two tough games to start our season," said Rolling Meadows senior Sara Sheridan, who ran the Mustangs' attack with plenty of pace and purpose.
Sheridan and Natalie Anderson are among just a handful of returning players from last year's club, which graduated 12 players, most of them starters.
"Lack of effort is one thing I'll never have to be concerned about with this team," said Drenth. "It's just that we have so many players with little or no varsity experience, so it's going to take some time to sort things out."
Sheridan, Anderson, Melissa Spiwak and Sophia Salemi were at the heart of the Mustangs' second-half attack, which came close on a couple of quality chances and generated a handful of others.
"We had to defend a lot more than we wanted to in that second half, but then again, Rolling Meadows was so much better than our first three opponents, so we had to be at our best today, especially with the wind at their backs," said Maine West captain and standout central defender Sarah Magnoni.
Bishop was quick to praise keeper Gabry Faraone, who came to the rescue for the Warriors in the second half with sure-handed saves on wind-aided strikes from the Mustangs (0-2-1).
"Gabry came through big for us, which is what we'll expect from her all season long," said Bishop.
The senior stopped Spiwak in the 57th minute, and later, when Kylie Konar unloaded a 35-yard freekick blast directly on frame.
Konar likely stopped a potential 1v1 opportunity for Vanessa Reyes when Dylan Van Fleet put her teammate through by reading the situation perfectly. Konar slid over from the back post to tackle Reyes at the spot at 55 minutes.
Van Fleet was outstanding as the Warriors' playmaker and 50-50 ball winner all afternoon. But in the final 10 minutes of regulation, the sophomore was forced to drop deeper to help her teammates defend the one-way attacking traffic of the Mustangs.
"This was a good test for us today, and it was the type of game that will help us get ready for play in the CSL when it begins," said Bishop.
The Warriors, who defeated Taft, Wheeling and Grant before today, travel to Ridgewood on Thursday for another nonconference contest.
Next up for the Mustangs is a visit from Mundelein on Wednesday before finishing up the week on the road at Maine East on the next day.