Girls soccer: Bartlett rallies by Larkin

When the going got tough on Wednesday night the Bartlett girls soccer team got tougher.

After falling behind 2-1 against Larkin early in the second half the Hawks rallied back with 3 goals in the final 20 minutes for a 4-2 victory at Millennium Field in Streamwood.

"It definitely shows that this team has a lot of perseverance," Bartlett assistant coach Vince Revak said. "We could have gave up when we fell behind, but instead our intensity really picked up when Larkin scored its second goal and we fought back."

A switch in strategy also helped get the Hawks back on track.

"We came out in a different formation to start the second half," Revak said. "But it didn't work very well, so we went back to the 4-5-1 that we are more familiar with and that we used in the first half. We started getting a lot better ball movement and good movement off the ball."

Mikayla Brown started the Hawks rally with her second goal of the game and sixth of the season with 19:33 left to play to tie the score at 2-2.

"We calmed down and just started playing our game again," Brown said. "Coming back like that shows we have a lot of passion to win. We were focused on making strong diagonal runs into the middle."

Rachel Helgensen picked a fine time to score her first goal of the season. It came with 12:40 left to play off an assist from Gianna Cesario and put the Hawks (8-5-1) back on top 3-2.

"I really wasn't expecting it," Helgensen said. "It was pretty exciting though. Gianna made a real good pass and I just had to tap it in."

Moments later Jenna Dombrowski closed out the scoring with her 10th goal of the season on a header. Dombrowski also had assists on both of Brown's goals.

"Mackayla and I definitely have good chemistry," Dombrowski said. "We were able to connect on a couple passes for goals. She does a great job finding her way to the ball. The whole team showed a lot of fight and determination. I think the through balls played a big factor."

Kelly Leon scored both of Larkin's goals in a span of just over 6 minutes early in the second half.

"The message we gave her at halftime was clear and that was to shoot," Larkin coach Ken Hall said. "She is the best freshman player we have had in a long. I was really proud the way the whole team played tonight. It was our sixth game in 7 days and I think we just lost our legs at the end. But I thought we battled a real good team toe-to toe."

The Royals fell to 9-3.