Hoffman stays on the move
Fresh off its title run at the Palatine Invite last weekend, Hoffman Estates entered Tuesday's season finale MSL crossover match at Elk Grove with the idea of staying in the fast lane en route to its postseason opener next week against conference rival Schaumburg at the Larkin regional.
With its 4-1 victory, the Hawks (10-5-4) did just that.
Leah Tednes and Colleen Thomas had a hand in 2 goals, and senior Chrissy Tooren struck for her 13th on the season as the visitors closed out the season on a high note against an injury-depleted Grens club which fell to 5-12-2 overall.
"The first half was kind of ugly with us playing into such a strong wind, but we got back after the break to play hard, especially in the midfield, and picked up where we left off following some very good soccer (played) at Palatine last weekend," said Hawks head coach Rob Schmidt, who watched four players (Tooren, Tednes, Carol King, and keeper Vanessa Daughtery) get named to the all-tournament team.
Daughtery was superb when called upon late in the match before the Hawks opened up a 3-goal cushion with the junior stopping back-to-back point blank blasts off the shooting boots of Jessie Hubly to help keep the visitors in the lead at 2-1.
Moments later, Tooren took the space she was given to unload a low drive into the far inside netting from 20 yards, then watched her mates Tednes and Thomas combine in the 78th minute make it 4-1 when Tednes tricked her way in close to score from 16 yards.
"We came down (into) the wind and saw 2 shots in close stopped by their keeper, then they went the other way and scored to pretty much end our chances of getting back into this match," said Grens coach Dan Klaus. "We obviously have some things to fix before now and our regional opener (here) next Tuesday against St. Charles East, and we'll use our second half effort as something to build off of."
The Grens, who have lost six 1-goal matches and 4 in OT this season, appeared to be on their way to a better result when Hubly took advantage of a poor clearing attempt to smash home the first goal of the match in the eighth minute.
Daughtery would do well on at least one-half dozen well placed corners sent in by Hubly and her sister Kelli all throughout the half by going up in a crowd to pull down dangerous serves near the spot.
The Hawks drew even on an own-goal at 19 minutes when a trio of Grens defenders had the unfortunate luck to touch an inward swing serve by Tooren.
Thomas struck the eventual game-winner just moments after intermission.