West Chicago takes ‘needed’ win at Glenbard South
After going nearly three weeks without a victory, West Chicago sure was glad to get one Tuesday.
The Wildcats took advantage of a Glenbard South red card to score a 2-1 come-from-behind victory in Glen Ellyn in nonconference girls soccer play.
“We definitely needed this win to boost our confidence,” said West Chicago junior forward Andie Lazzerine. “This season has been a tough one.”
The turning point came in the 65th minute with Glenbard South leading 1-0. Raiders goalkeeper Dana Jourdan, who had kept the Raiders in the game by taking the ball off the feet of a couple of Wildcats on first-half breakaways, tried again when Wildcats freshman Kayla Kirkwood got in behind the Raiders’ defense. This time the ball squirted across the goal line instead of winding up in Jourdan’s hands, and when Kirkwood went to the ground, the referee pulled out a red card and awarded West Chicago (5-10-1) a penalty kick.
“It was unlucky,” Raiders coach Glen Eggert said. “The ball got pushed out and the momentum of the keeper, her feet get into the other player and the referee makes a decision in that moment.”
“I did not expect that red card at all,” Lazzerine said. “I don’t know if I agreed with it, but I’m not going to argue. I don’t want to blame refs and stuff for games, but I’m sure that had an effect on their play and also ours as well. It was the turning point in the game.”
Defender Colleen O’Brien volunteered to play goalkeeper and promptly stopped the West Chicago penalty kick.
“I thought I’d better this because the game was on the line,” said O’Brien, who hadn’t played goalkeeper since her U-11 days but expects to get the call again Thursday when the Raiders host Illiana Christian. “I knew no one else had played, I played when I was younger, so I thought I might as well take one for the team.”
“We finally got the ‘W’ that we needed,” West Chicago coach J. Cesar Gomez said. “We’ve been close before. We made it interesting. They have a very good keeper. Too bad she ended up getting kicked out on that penalty kick, and we didn’t do anything with it.”
Taking advantage of Glenbard South (5-9) playing with just 10 girls on the field, West Chicago tied the game in the 72nd minute when Kirkwood scored off a Cassie Thill assist, then found the game-winner in the 74th when Bianca Navejas assisted Ybette Hernandez.
“We typically never have red cards because we’re a very sporting team, so the girls were really thrown, not knowing how to handle being down a player,” Eggert said.
Glenbard South’s goal came in the 45th minute, Dani Pitaro nailing a shot from 14 yards out.
“The goal actually was a result of Tara (Zagone) fighting for a header back upfield, and that created an opportunity for us that we translated into a goal,” Eggert said. “One of the things that they’re working on is winning the aerial duals, and Tara committed to winning the ball, won it, and it resulted in a goal two passes later.”