Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove battle to tie
On a night when a victory and 3 points would have helped keep the winner close to division leader Rolling Meadows, a 1-1 draw instead put both Elk Grove and Buffalo Grove a step further behind the Mid-Suburban East leaders.
After struggling to unlock a Bison defense which played with much grit and heart, the visiting Grens stunned hosts with two minutes left in regulation when Michelle Calmeyn found the equalizer to send the match into OT. Neither team scored in the two 10-minute extra sessions.
“Obviously I am thrilled that (Michelle) somehow found a way to get us even so late in regulation, but I am (less) than thrilled with the way we played overall as a team,” said Elk Grove coach Dan Klaus, whose club is now 5-3-2 overall, and 1-2-1 in the division with 4 points in the standings. “It’s hard to figure why we struggled in so many areas of our game tonight, including the sequence in which (BG) scored its goal in the first half, and also with the way that we were unable to finish so many chances that we created — although (the BG) defense and keeper played very well.”
The Bison (6-3-1, 2-2-1, 7 points) surprised their guests just before the quarter-hour mark when Kim Herzog found the back of the net after the Grens gave up the ball in their own end. Buffalo Grove then dodged a bullet when a Calmeyn blast went off of both posts before bounding out of danger to help keep the score at 1-0 at intermission.
Just before the break, Katie Naughton elevated over defenders to meet an inward swinging corner from Rachel Pruim, but her header went just over the bar.
Bison keeper Katie Okamoto stopped Calmeyn at 51 minutes after Sarah Stram and Nikki Zaino helped initiate a shot in close. At the hour mark, Okamoto was at it again when a familiar face (Calmeyn) headed another Prium serve.
Lindsay Puppolo, Sierra Bugno, JJ Lowery and Courtney Carlton never backed down along the back for the Bison, despite the fact that Elk Grove monopolized the possession in the second-half. But the quartet could do little on the Calmeyn goal at 78 minutes which was redirected past Okamoto after a favorable ball from Jill Zelek found the Grens senior.
“(We) were a little unlucky on their goal, but I really thought our defense played very well all night long,” said Puppolo, a senior.
The first extra period was highlighted by a point-blank save by Okamoto on Calmeyn, with junior Carolynn Wieland coming close to firing in the game-winner when she was sent through on the right side by Carly Brown and Sara Brawley at 100 minutes, only to see her low blast go just wide of the back post and keeper Melissa Solorio, who’d left her line to challenge.
“I don’t really feel that we could have played any harder as a team than we did tonight, and I am very proud of the effort all of the girls put in tonight, even with us coming away with a draw instead of a win,” said Buffao Grove coach Pat Dudle.