Eaker, Schaumburg win a squeaker
Winning in the Mid-Suburban League is never easy. Just ask Schaumburg girls soccer coach Greg Charvat.
He watched his club narrowly avert overtime when sophomore Jenna Eaker sent in the game-winner at 78 minutes to help the Saxons record a 1-0 victory at Rolling Meadows on Monday night.
After struggling to unload against strong back-line play from the Mustangs (5-2-0, 1-1-0), Eaker finally broke the deadlock with two minutes remaining in regulation, bending the ball beyond the grasp of keeper Emily Haeger, who was unable to initially stop Kelsey Steenstrup after the junior forced a rebound following a throw-in from the near side by teammate Stephanie Pouse.
“Just another typical soccer match in the MSL,” was how Chavrat summed things up. “We came in having a lot of respect for Jeff (Adkins) and his program, and Meadows showed just how good of a team they are by playing with so much heart and passion, despite having a few injuries here and there, especially in the back.”
The Mustangs’ back line features two of the four players who are team captains in Alex Partipilo and Maddie Conlin. But Meadows lost the services of Partipilo at intermission to an injury, forcing Adkins and his staff to play musical chairs with an already short bench, and asking most of his starters to go 80 minutes against a foe which plays a high-energy, attacking style.
“We all had to step up when we knew Alex wouldn’t be back out there playing in the second half,” said Conlin, “and I really feel that we played about as hard as we could with everyone doing about as much as they could while out there. We really missed Alex in the back, but we did a great job even without her, and I really believe we can come away from this match tonight with a lot of positives to take with us into our next match against Prospect on Wednesday.”
Fresh off its run to a championship trophy at the South Elgin tournament on Saturday, the Mustangs were looking forward to their first home match of the year and a chance to keep pace with division-leading Hersey and Elk Grove, both with 3 points in the MSL East table.
However, the Saxons (5-1-0, 1-1-0) did well to limit the midfield touches of the Mustangs’ top player, Ann Marie Lynch, thus slowing the attack of the home side for most of the first half.
“I thought we really didn’t have that good of a start tonight, but when we started to communicate better and moved the ball (around) we did much better as the first half went on,” said Schaumburg junior midfielder Teagan Eberle. She, along with Steenstrup and Becky Sneddon, always seemed to be defusing the visitors’ attack.
The best chance for either side to score occurred at 47 minutes when Pouse had a go from 25 yards in which Haeger, in full extension to her right, pulled the strike out of the air.
Two minutes later, after the Saxons had some trouble clearing an Ali Schmalz corner, Lynch headed a dangerous ball sent into the area from Ariel Larocco.
“Credit Rolling Meadows,” said Charvat. “They made it difficult for us tonight to do some of the things we came in here hoping to do.”
Mary Collins, Elyse Koutas and Lynch worked together on a promising counter, which ended with sophomore Monika Cinch testing Schaumburg keeper Tressa Palcheck as the match began to open up a bit near the hour mark. But the terrific play of Conlin and her teammates in the back — Schmalz, Amanda Kelly and Nicole Banach — was the difference-maker on this night.
“I could not have asked much more of the this team,” said Adkins. “They couldn’t have played any harder. We were short-handed, and when we created some chances, they were real quality opportunities. In our two losses thus far, we’ve lost both by identical 1-0 scores, and I believe that says a lot about this team.”
Next up for the Saxons is their tournament opener at St. Charles East at 5 p.m. Wednesday against Naperville Central.