Willowbrook earns draw against Streamwood

In a matchup of winless girls soccer teams in the early going of the season, a tie can be looked at two different ways.

That's the way Streamwood and Willowbrook felt after Wednesday's nonconference 1-1 tie.

Streamwood led for the first 76 minutes before Willowbrook senior Amelia Weyer took advantage of one of the Warriors' few offensive chances. Weyer powered a shot over the head of Streamwood goalkeeper Pearl Patel from 30 yards out to stun the Sabres and give the Warriors their first goal of the young season.

"I really felt we played far below our potential today," Willowbrook coach Pete Montgomery said. "The way we played, I think we're squeaking out of here excited to have a tie. I think we probably didn't deserve a tie the way we played today. The girls probably would agree with me."

Streamwood (0-0-2) took a 1-0 lead with 20:53 left in the first half. Freshman Amy Tyszkiewicz punched a shot toward the goal from about 30 yards out. The Willowbrook goalkeeper appeared to stop the shot, but it bounced away from her and the officials ruled that it went over the goal line.

Montgomery moved Weyer from defense to the midfield at the half in order to spark some more offense. It took 36 minutes, but the move paid off when Weyer tied the game.

"She won't hesitate to put a foot on that long shot," Montgomery said. "She caught the goalkeeper a few feet out and dropped it right under the crossbar. It was perfectly placed. That's what we asked her to do in the second half and she was able to come through for us."

Willowbrook (0-3-1) is hoping to take its first goal of the season and bring about a chance to the team's fortunes. Offensive chances have been hard to come by for the Warriors thus far this season.

"We spent a lot of minutes today sitting back and waiting to react to what they did," Montgomery said. "That's not going to be good enough to beat very many teams, or tie very many teams. We've got to decide what we're going to do from here. Will we react to teams or will we go attack them. I was very glad that we got that goal because that was evidence of what we can do when we go on the attack and pressure the ball hard."