Palatine sets up another crosstown classic
There is going to be another crosstown classic next Tuesday.
No. 13 seed Palatine (14-9-2) continued to stay alive in the postseason after winning its own Class 3A girls soccer regional title by defeating 10-man Buffalo Grove 1-0 on Saturday.
The Pirates booked their place against No. 1 Fremd at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Glenbrook South sectional semifinals.
Pirates sophomore Jessica Malak provided the game-winner in the 69th minute, and her teammates rarely allowed an inch of space and time for a young Bison (10-9-3) side which saw its season come to an end after upending No. 5 Glenbrook South earlier in the week in dramatic fashion in a shootout.
“The formula for Palatine is really simple. They pressure you all over the place for 80 minutes, create a bunch of dead balls and corners, and find a way to score off of one of them — it’s exactly what happened to us today,” said BG coach Pat Dudle.
Dudle’s club was faced with its toughest challenge yet during the tournament when it went a player down at 62 minutes when Sierra Bugno was sent off following a scrum on the turf with Pirates senior Gabbi McArtor. The center official saw it as a reckless challenge on behalf of the Bison defender as each player battled during a 50-50 ball.
“I really felt we had a lot of energy left in us after (the) red card, and actually created a few opportunities for ourselves,” Dudle said. “But again, Palatine just kept coming at us until they finally put one into the back of the net off a set piece.”
Neither side was able to get much of anything going in the first 40 minutes. The Pirates did well to compress play with a crowded midfield and a backline which limited the touches for BG’s game No. 1 hero, Carolynn Wieland, and her speedy mate up top, Skylar Groth.
Palatine also tested the Bison in its own end with some quality service out of the back, and several corners, which required Bison keeper Katie Okamoto and sweeper Kelly Mahoney to take notice of.
“The first time we played them, it was a (1-0) result when they scored off a freekick, and today, they constantly kept the pressure on (us) with a lot of the same type of play from the very beginning, right up until they scored the game-winner,” offered Mahoney, who is off to Butler University next fall to play soccer, while entering the pharmacy program.
While the Pirates midfield duo of Amanda Filian and Kaitlyn Burke were both winning balls and creating plenty of havoc in the middle of the stadium, McArtor’s boundless energy as both an attacking and defending midfielder when withdrawn, made it nearly impossible for the visitors to record any type of possession throughout.
“The first time we played (them) Gabbi had just come back from pneumonia, and her fitness wasn’t near what it (is) now, and we struggled not having her at 100 percent,” said Palatine coach Willie Filian. “But today her presence was felt when she was out there.”
Okamoto would turn a couple of would-be goals up and over the woodwork to keep the game goal-less. Her best came at 54 minutes when McKenzie Wiedemann delivered a superb freekick to the spot, where Morgan Radtke nearly finished, if not for the quick reaction from the Bison junior.
Malak struck the game-winner when the Bison were unable to clear Kaitlyn Mayer’s throw into the box — much to the delight of the Palatine sophomore.
“I guess I was in the right place at the right time,” said Malak with a big grin.
The Bison would push Mahoney into the midfield, and encourage its players on the outside to get forward more in search of the equalizer. But it was a dead-ball chance that nearly brought them even, when Mahoney unloaded a 30-yard missile in which Pirates keeper Meghan Ellis pushed up and over with a brilliant one-glove touch.
“Sometime you have to ask your keeper to make a big save or two during a game, and Meghan did just that for us today,” said Filian.
The Pirates would stay water-tight for the next seven minutes after the Ellis save, and then celebrate its final soccer match of the 2011 season on its home turf.
“We get to practice one more day, and play one more time, and against Fremd — and that is a very good thing for all of us,” said backline star Kelli Strauss, who along with Alexis Dejulio and Taylor Harding helped Ellis record her shutout.