Glenbard South wins first sectional match

Glenbard South senior Michael Pyle knew who to credit for his team's 4-1 victory against Wheaton Academy on Thursday night in the Class 2A Wheaton Academy sectional semifinals.

“It was a team effort throughout,” Pyle said. “The defense made it happen, especially Eric Good in goal. He was the key player in the game.”

Good, a senior goalkeeper, made 10 saves, including a point-blank stop in the 38th minute to protect a 2-1 lead, and he drew praise from both coaches as well as his teammate.

“He made some great saves, and you know what? He's like that,” said Raiders coach Melissa Pero. “Very reliable, very dependable, very consistent. He lives for these big games. That's why he's our captain.”

But surely Good might have given a little more credit to Pyle, who scored all four of the Raiders' goals.

“Mike's a great player,” Pero said. “We've been getting on him to shoot a little more. I'm glad to see he followed those instructions. That's very good.”

Pyle's response was a big problem for the Warriors.

“Pyle got through our central mid a little bit,” Warriors coach Jeff Brooke said. “We knew he was a great player. We were tracking him and he got loose a couple of times and took advantage of the chances that we had.”

Wheaton Academy (16-7-1) scored the game's first goal, putting Glenbard South in a hole just three minutes into the game on Joshua Urban's 15-yard shot.

“We've been scored on first in the past not many times, but we have and normally in the past Glenbard South would shut down and give up,” Pero said. “And that's a tribute to this team this year. Every single time they've done that they have gotten better and better and better and never given up and always worked harder. And we've always been fortunate to come out with the win.”

The Raiders (19-1-1) have come out with a lot of wins this season, and each one gets bigger and bigger.

“We've never won a regional championship, and this is our first sectional game to play in and we won big, so this is a good start,” Pero said.

The Raiders meet St. Joseph at 6 p.m. Saturday at Wheaton Academy for the sectional championship. Not bad for a first-year coach, who sounded a lot like her four-goal scorer.

“It's not me, though,” Pero said, “it's all them.”