Grayslake North, D-C battle to scoreless tie

The Grayslake North girls soccer invitational has turned into a three-team race, with one day of games remaining Thursday.

Dundee-Crown and host Grayslake North played through 80 minutes of scoreless soccer under very windy conditions in Grayslake on Wednesday.

Dundee Crown (3-1-2, 1-0-1) plays Glenbard West at 2:30 p.m. today, followed by Maine East against the Knights (2-2-1, 1-0-1) at Grayslake North.

On Wednesday, the Knights were trying to go over the .500 mark for the first time in school history. They couldn't get it done, but the Knights managed to extend their unbeaten streak to three games.

Meanwhile, Grayslake North had to play against the wind in the first half and handled it quite well.

"We've been looking for a good solid defensive effort and we've had good efforts, but we've had one or two minutes where we make mistakes," said Grayslake North coach Adam DeCaluwe, whose team suffered early season losses to Crystal Lake South and Huntley. "We came out and showed what we can do behind the ball and with the wind in our face. We stepped up and showed we could fight.

"But the second half, we were assuming things would go right for us, because we had the wind. (Dundee-Crown) did the same job against us as we did in the first half. (Dundee-Crown) packed it in, won 50/50 balls and cleared the ball as quick as possible."

Knights defenders Katie McGrath, Hannah Mitchem, Andrea Lamb and Megan McHugh combined to keep the Chargers' shots to a minimum. Knights keeper Brooke Sauer made 2 saves and earned the shutout.

Grayslake North thought it had a goal in the 26th minute on a header off a couple of touches from a free kick, but it was waived off for offsides.

The Knights had several scoring chances but couldn't get the ball past Chargers keeper Deanna Libricz, who made 7 saves and earned a shutout.

"I thought we did pretty good and held them off," Libricz said. "(Grayslake North) didn't have a lot of shots, just a couple here and there in the box.

"Our team has had a lot of commitment. We are a young team and want to get better."

The Chargers' defense included Jordan and Mallory Fryer, Colleen Odden and Paige Suwanski.

"I'll take it, but I'm happy with the way we played," said Dundee-Crown coach Sebastian Falinski of the scoreless tie. "(Grayslake North's) midfielders won every 50/50 ball and we couldn't compete the whole game. That's one thing we've got to take away from this game and learn from it. We've got to go after the second balls. It makes a big difference in the way game is played. I thought we took a step back in what we wanted to accomplish."