Palatine can’t match Boylan’s pace
A trio of second-half strikes, two coming from Maura Korchak, helped send visiting Boylan to a 5-2 girls soccer victory over host Palatine Tuesday night in an impressive display of attacking in the season opener for both clubs.
The Titans (1-0-0) raced out to a 2-goal advantage before the half-hour as Valparaiso-bound Abby Reed finished on a pair of marvelous goals. The hosts took advantage of an own-goal to draw closer before the break and eventually drew even just minutes after intermission — only to watch their opponents outpace them down the stretch.
“We got tired,” said Palatine coach Willie Filian. “We’ve been stressing for nearly three weeks how important being fit would be, and tonight the team saw just how important it is.
“Boylan has a lot of team speed from front to back, and they possess through the middle and beat you on the outside with their speed. But they are also in great shape, and when we were tired they took full advantage of us.”
The visitors enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession in the early going as they looked for and found Reed and another D-I recruit, Sydney Rumple, who was stationed just behind the midfielder and in front of her backline but had the freedom to go forward to join the attack.
When this junior duo did so, the Pirates were forced to defend more than they wanted to.
“When we play through those two we can be a dangerous side, and one that can play some entertaining soccer as well,” said Boylan coach Mark Couper.
The Titans struck for their first goal when Reed ran onto an early ball from Emma Krahmer before finishing past keeper Rachel Rhodes at 17 minutes.
Ten minutes later, the Titans doubled their lead when Reed found the upper right corner from the left side.
Pirates striker Katelyn Mayer, who was a handful all night long for the Titans, nearly gave her team an early lead when she unloaded a right-footed blast from 20 yards. Boylan keeper Shelby Sonnefeldt was forced to save.
The Pirates found some life after a well-aimed inward swinging corner by Jillian Gronwick was redirected past Sonnefeldt. The own-goal provided some much needed momentum for Palatine, which came alive in the final 10 minutes before the break.
“We had some spells where we did a lot of good things — especially after that first goal, and when Katelyn got us even, but we stopped winning balls and we gave the ball away, and (Boylan) is talented enough to take advantage of those types of things,” said Filian.
With McKenzie Wiedemann and Kaitlyn Burke tackling and taking control in the middle, and the Pirates backline led by Kellie Strauss and Jessica Malak helping tighten things up in front of Rhodes, Palatine enjoyed the run of play leading up to Mayers’ equalizer — and oh, what a goal it was.
She collected a helper from Wiedemann, and from 25 yards hit a missile into the far inside netting — way out of reach of the outstretched gloves of Sonnefeldt.
“Willie always has his team ready to go and playing hard for 80 minutes, and they put some pressure on us. They made us work all throughout the match, and that’s why we enjoy opening our season against them,” said Couper.
The tie was short-lived, however, as the Titans got one of their own five minutes later to take the lead for good.
Maura Korchak finished a long free kick at the back post, then followed up with her second at 71 minutes, thanks to an assist from Krahmer.
Alexa Wright put an exclamation on the night for the visitors in the 76th minute.
“We got through our first game, and although it ended with a loss, we saw some good things along the way. Also a few things that we’ll need to sort out and tweak, and in a hurry, because we’ve got Conant (on Wednesday) in our MSL opener,” said Filian.