Late goal sinks Maine West
After a recent 7-0 drubbing at the hands of Hinsdale Central, Glenbard East rebounded in fine style Thursday afternoon with a well-deserved victory.
Freshman Erin Mrazek struck the game-winner in the closing seconds to help the Rams defeat Maine West 1-0 in a chilly nonconference contest in Des Plaines.
The match began with the run of play favoring the Rams (1-1-1) and continued throughout, but the Warriors held strong until the very end to earn praise from East coach Kent Overby.
"We outshot them 15-1, but (they) were a very resilient team we played today, and you have to give them credit for playing so well on the defensive side all throughout the match," said Overby, who like his coaching counterpart Aaron Fleming used plenty of freshmen and sophomores.
"It was kind of a tough message for a young team like ours to learn today, and I know all of them are upset with the way we lost the match at the very end." Fleming said. "But the hope is that we learned something from it all and that it will help in the development of this team down the road."
Freshman keeper Jessie Mueller made a couple of superb stops to help keep the Warriors (2-2-1) within striking distance.
The sweeper duo of Mandy Paleczny (Glenbard East) and Warriors junior Amanda Ollerer both played well.
Despite nearly flawless work in front of keeper Nikki Hall, Paleczny jumped into the Rams attack and served several well-aimed passes up top that caused trouble in the Warriors end.
Ollerer was more of a stay-at-home defender in her 80 minutes of work, helping to keep the Warriors' defense organized against the Rams.
"We lost 9-10 seniors from last years team, and it will take us awhile to sort things out and get to know each other," Ollerer said. "But today we played very good defense for most of the match and nearly kept (Glenbard East) out of the net to get a draw."
As intermission neared, Mueller pushed a blast from Mrazek up and over the bar to save a goal. Just after the break, Warriors freshman Annaliese Walsten clear a ball off the line on which Rams' freshmen Lindsey Paganucci nearly scored.
With just 1.8 seconds left in regulation, a Paleczyn serve into the 6-yard box began a chain reaction in front of Mueller - who was jostled a couple of times and sent to the ground.
Mrazek collected a loose ball and fired a goal from close range just inside the near post.
"It felt good to come back after (that) loss to Hinsdale and play well for 80 minutes and to get to the offense up and running and to have so many of our young players make a contribution today," Overby said.