Girls soccer: Rolling Meadows blanks Wheeling

First-half goals from Alexa Davis and Kylie Konar gave Rolling Meadows' girls soccer team another 3 points and a firm grip on second place behind Mid-Suburban East leader Hersey. The Mustangs' 2-0 victory over visiting Wheeling Monday moved Meadows (4-4-0 overall) to 3-2-0 in the league, good for 9 points and just 3 points shy of Hersey (4-1-0) which lost on Monday to Conant.

"We've had some real exciting wins lately," said Meadows senior Nina Sanchez, who wears the captain's armband for head coach Mike Drenth, along with Grace Preissing and Kate Mallek.

"We had a great overtime win against Elk Grove, then tied up our game with Buffalo Grove in the final seconds before winning that one in overtime also."

Sanchez was a key figure in the Mustangs' effort at Robert Hoese Field Monday, running the attack from her spot in the center of the park with quality distribution, as well as winning her fair share of 50-50 balls to help keep the Wildcats (2-7-0, 0-4-0) in their own end for much of the afternoon.

"We have a couple of injuries right now that is causing a little trouble with our depth so right now, most of my starters are going 75-80 minutes a game, which eventually catches up to us as the game goes on," admitted Wheeling head coach Dwayne Cruz.

"Our back line continued to bend, but not break, while playing with a lot of heart and that's about all you can ask from your team."

Davis would score her eighth goal of the season in the 21st minute when she ran onto a wonderful ball from Sanchez after Reilly Moran got the ball to Sanchez at the start of the attack.

Davis, who Drenth would line up either up top or as a central midfielder, was part of unlucky statistic by the home side which either hit the bar or post seven times on this day, allowing the visitors to stay much closer than the Mustangs would have liked.

Just moments after the Davis opener, Konar would double the Mustangs' advantage when she finished what she started, which was a blast off the bar that fell nicely toward the junior.

With teammates Kate Quick and Moran having most of the play run through them up the right side after the break, along with the pace and serves into the box from Meghan O'Grady on the left side, the Mustangs would have most of the possession.

"We did a lot of good things today, but we could have been much better at finishing our chances," said Sanchez.

Next up for Sanchez and her teammates is Schaumburg on Wednesday in an away match, while Wheeling hosts Prospect.