Sweet victory for Sauer, Grayslake North
Goalkeeper Brooke Sauer was one of the first Grayslake North girls soccer players to got her hands on the Lakes Tournament Invitational trophy on Saturday afternoon.
Sauer, one of 10 seniors on team, was true to her position and kept a firm grasp of the hardware after it was awarded to the Knights following their 1-0 victory over Richmond-Burton in Lake Villa.
For Grayslake North (8-5-1, 3-1 in the invitational), it was a moment worth savoring. It’s the first trophy for the varsity girls soccer team in the school’s six-year history.
“The trophy will go into our trophy case, but I wouldn’t mind taking it home with me,” said Sauer, who has been in goal all four years. “It’s goes for all the hard work we do with the team.
“We have a lot of communication on defense, and the experience of playing together for a number of years helps too.”
Sauer posted her fifth shutout and made 4 saves for Grayslake North against Richmond-Burton (12-2-1, 3-1). The Knights also managed to stop the Rockets’ Amanda Hoglund, who’d already scored 26 goals this season.
The Knights’ defense was led by Lyz Steinhoff, Hannah Mitchem, Andrea Lamb, Kendall Detwieler and Erin Parro.
“We are a good team and we had to deal with some injuries,” Grayslake North coach Adam DeCaluwe said. “It slowed us down a bit. But we’re a good team and we showed it here. We have a lot of depth — playing back to back, we have the legs to keep going and going.
“The girls played well under high pressure. If you play with the ball more often, then you will be the team that’s more dangerous.”
Jaclyn Brennan had the only goal of the game with an assist from Kendall Detweiler in the 19th minute.
Richmond-Burton tried to play from a defensive formation in hopes of generating counter-attack chances against Grayslake North.
“(Grayslake North) did a nice job to keep Amanda (Hoglund) marked real tight, and we couldn’t find her feet. When we tried to go over, they did a good job to trap with their backs. I thought (Grayslake North) came at us real strong from the start.”
Grayslake North reached the championship with a 2-0 shutout over Woodstock North on Saturday morning. Brennan and Katie McGrath scored the goals.
Ÿ Vernon Hills lost its bid for third place with a 2-1 loss to Woodstock North; the game was decided 5-4 on penalty kicks. Kelly Hull scored for the Cougars (7-5. 3-1) .
The Cougars won their earlier game 6-0 over Waukegan. Kaitlin Gramins scored a hat trick, Katherine Koczwara had 2 goals and Maddison Guillaume also scored.
Ÿ Lakes (8-4-1, 3-1) won the fifth-place game over district rival Antioch 1-0. The Eagles also defeated Zion-Benton 3-2 and lost to Richmond-Burton 3-0.
Ÿ The all-tournament team — Grayslake North: Hannah Mitchem, Kendall Detweiler and Jaclyn Brennan; Lakes: Leah Baker and Jenna Baker; Antioch: Alex Fracek and Erica Slack; Vernon Hills: Julie Pecht, Kristen Guglielmi and Kaitlin Gramins.