Buffalo Grove flies by short-handed Lake Park
Buffalo Grove got off to a flying start at the Early Bird Invite at Lake Park by defeating the shorthanded Lancers 5-0 on a dreary Saturday morning at Krupke Field in Medinah.
The Bison (5-0-0), fresh off a pair of key Mid-Suburban League victories, finally put away a stubborn Lake Park (1-2-0) side which was hit hard by injuries. They include tri-captain Megan Lindbert, who is one of four that sustained ACL injuries — robbing coach Chris Fruehling of not only talent, but much-needed depth from his club.
“Yes, it’s been kind of tough here at the start, but I couldn’t be more proud of the girls’ effort for 80 minutes, or the positive attitude that they’ve kept while we work through (these) injuries, and the fact that we’ve had to play some of them in spots they might not be comfortable at right now,” said Fruehling, who last season led the Lancers to 14 wins and a regional championship.
For the Bison, who continue tournament play at noon Tuesday against Glenbard South, it took nearly 15 minutes for coach Pat Dudle’s club to find its pace before Kelli Zickert hit the bar with her shot. But the freshman didn’t miss a few minutes later when she gave her club the only goal it would need by finishing a nice helper from Skylar Groth in the 17th minute.
“We like to knock the ball around a lot, so playing on turf is an advantage for us — so we struggled at times today on the wet grass and slippery conditions, but (still) connected with our passes when we had to,” said Zickert, who with another freshman, Jessica Kovach, outpaced their opponents in the middle of the park whenever Dudle had the duo paired together.
“We kind of got caught up playing a little too much, but we’ve got more skilled players than we have before, and when we finally settled (in) a little today, we got a lot of people involved and did some good things with the ball,” said Dudle, who decided to keep his all-area striker Carolynn Wieland on the sideline after a collision in a win over Rolling Meadows on Friday night.
Lancers’ keeper Rebecca Thorne was called to action to save a go from Zickert from 20 yards at 25 minutes, and the home side did its best to shrink the field by playing compact and tight through the middle of the pitch, which at times seemed the right tactical approach to take as the Bison got forward, but were unable to build an attack with enough bite.
However, four minutes from intermission, the Bison doubled the lead when Sarah O’Connor’s freekick to the back post was kept alive by freshman Sara Busse — which allowed an unmarked Jessica Ahumada to thump into the back of the net.
Fruehling asked for and received plenty of energy and a nice work rate from Lauren Bolnius and Lexi Ruffolo up top, as the sophomore-freshman duo ran at the backline of the Bison hoping to create turnovers, while senior Briana Small pushed up from her spot as sweeper to add numbers and some experience to the Lancers’ attack.
“I moved up halfway through the first half, then for most of the second half when we tried to get something going when we got down a couple of goals,” said the four-year varsity veteran Small, who wore the captains’ armband for Fruehling.
Kim Herzog found the woodwork after a Groth corner, and Busse went wide after taking down an Alexa Landsberger serve at 66 minutes — and with their confidence building, the Bison struck for a trio of goals within four minutes to put away the tourney hosts for good.
Colleen Zickert and sister Kelli went back-to-back at 70 and 72 minutes, then it was Elizabeth Chan who ended the scoring in the 74th minute.
“We feel if we continue to work hard, and stay healthy, we will have a good chance to compete for a title in our division, but there’s a long way to go in the season,” said Kelli Zickert.