McCabe, Prospect blank Rolling Meadows
Prospect began a big week of soccer with a 3-0 victory over visiting Rolling Meadows in Mid-Suburban East action Monday night in Mt. Prospect.
All-area keeper Megan McCabe made her season debut a good one, and her teammates kept the 1-2 punch of Ann Marie Lynch and Maggie Moran at bay to give the Knights their first conference victory of the young season — and some much-needed momentum with tough division rivals Elk Grove and Hersey next up this week.
“Coach (Tom) Froats told us in our pregame meeting how important this week is to us, and how we all need to step up our play in order to get back into the race, so this victory tonight is a great start for our team,” said McCabe, who will play next fall at Eastern Michigan.
“I thought we opened tonight really well,” said Froats, “and did a lot of good things in the first 15 minutes, but we really should have finished some of our chances and given ourselves a 2- or 3-goal advantage during that time. When you’re up 1 goal at the break against a team that has two dangerous players in Lynch and Moran, that can be trouble. But it’s always great to have a keeper like Megan back there, and our backline along with her did a good job of keeping them out of the back of the net tonight.”
The pace and creativity of Prospect’s Jesse Petrovski, Kelli Iovino and Rachel Suarez gave the visitors plenty of trouble in the early stages, and just seven minutes in, the hosts struck when Suarez took advantage of a communication breakdown to finish past Mustangs keeper Ashley Ingolia, who had a strong match between the sticks despite watching three go past her, none of which the talented sophomore could be faulted for.
Ingolia saved a well-struck blast from Suarez at 13 minutes and came off her line without reservation to stop Iovino, who was put through by Kelly Ziegenfuss from out of the back.
When the visitors were able to get the ball to Lynch at midfield, she routinedly found her speedy mate Moran up top and the Mustangs (4-5-0) were able to press their attack and get a few good looks on frame and at McCabe. But neither player was able to beat the Knights keeper.
“There’s a lot of talent on this team, but it’s so young and inexperienced, and it’s just taking us a long time to figure things out and play together as a team when we get forward,” said Lynch.
An unfortunate own-goal helped the Knights (2-2-1, 1-2-0) double their lead just moments after intermission, with Iovino the culprit behind the game’s second goal against the run of play.
The hosts advanced into the Mustangs’ end at will after the own-goal, and appeared to be on the verge of increasing its 2-goal lead, but the Knights sputtered on several chances.
“We created some very good chances but didn’t put the ball into the back of the net,” said Froats, “and we’ve got to get better at that if we hope to compete and get the results we’ll need against the rest of the way.”
Mustangs coach Mike Drenth put Lynch and Moran alongside each other at midfield to begin the second period and paired Elyse Koutas and Sarah Ott up top. While his top two players did help pry open the Knights from time to time, the play of the Ziegenfuss, a senior, as well as sophomores Trisha Bensen and Danielle Hamzeloo, proved air-tight when needed.
“Taylor (Smith) is in the midfield, and we’ve got two sophomores in the back along with Kelly, and I they’re looking really good right now,” said McCabe.
A quick counter off a foul near the midline led to the final goal of the match, as Petrovski scored thanks to some nice work from Elena Cukurs and Iovino at 76 minutes.
The Knights travel to Elk Grove on Wednesday, while the Mustangs are at defending MSL West champion Conant.