Grayslake Central splits Saturday games at Palatine
Grayslake Central’s girls soccer team had a great opportunity to see where it sits against some of the bigger schools outside Lake County.
The Rams competed quite well, it turns out, and managed to split a pair of games in the Palatine Tournament on Saturday.
Grayslake Central lost to Morton 2-0 in the afternoon game after a earning 1-0 victory over Evanston in the morning.
The Rams (13-4) had several players take part in structured socializing Friday night.
“It was good, but the timing didn’t coincide well with us — we had prom (Friday night),” Grayslake Central coach Mike McCaulou said. “Not sure if they got enough sleep, but it’s not an excuse. We just need to come out and perform better.”
The Rams managed to win one of their three games; host Palatine won the tournament.
“I thought we did OK,” McCaulou said. “We’ve been struggling the last few weeks trying to finish. We just need to have more consistency in our play.”
Grayslake Central had the better of the play against Morton, but that wasn’t reflectedon the scoreboard.
Morton (7-10-3, 2-1) got its goals in the 16th minute from Karen Navarette, and from Rachel Kacirek in the 59th minute.
“In this game, in the first half we had a lot of possession and created a lot of chances,” McCaulou said. “In the second half, we just didn’t do too much. Not sure if it was fatigue factor.
“We just have to keep working at it. We just have to attack with speed.”
The Rams have been strong in the midfield, where Marissa Labello has been leading the effort.
“We work well as a team and we’re good at possessing the ball,” Labello said. “We look for the open player and see the opportunities to score.”
In the early game, Grayslake Central got a goal from Kelly Jay assisted from Allison Mitchell’s throw-in.
Kat Dickson earned her 13th shutout and made a couple of key saves.
Earlier this week, the Rams clinched at least a share of the Fox Valley Conference Fox division when they defeated Johnsburg earlier this week. Prairie Ridge has 3 games left in FVC Conference play and has a 5-4 mark.
Grayslake Central is 8-2 in league play with 2 games left. The Rams host Crystal Lake South on Tuesday night and visiting Jacobs next Saturday morning. Either a loss from Prairie Ridge or a victory from the Rams would give Grayslake Central the Fox Division title for the first time.