Boyle’s OT goal clinches East title for Hersey
With one spectacular strike, Megan Boyle helped Hersey book its fifth straight Mid-Suburban League Soccer Cup appearance.
The four-year star finished off sensational night of soccer in Arlington Heights between the top two sides in the MSL East with a 30-yard blast to give the hosts an exciting 2-1 victory in OT over a valiant club from Buffalo Grove to clinch yet another division title. It’s the fourth straight for Boyle and her teammates Nicole Pietro and Olivia Stasiuk, who each have played major roles in the Huskies’ divisional dominance.
“The thing about this team is that it never, ever quits or stops playing, and tonight wasn’t any different,” said Boyle. “When we went down 1-0, I knew we weren’t done. Casey (Weyhrich) scored a great goal to get us back even, and I was lucky to finally put one into the back of the net after shooting a bunch of time during the game.”
The Huskies now await their opponent in the May 9 championship match, likely to be decided this week between Barrington and Conant, tied atop the MSL West with 24 points.
“Buffalo Grove is so tough, and they have so many good, young players, who can play,” said Hersey coach Brad Abel. “The two Zickert girls, No. 14 (Jessica Kovach) and No. 24 (Sara Busse) were just a handful tonight. Their back line really shut us down in the first half, and (BG) really had us on our heels at the same time.”
The Bison (11-3-1, 5-3-1-16 points), who’ve improved each week of the season, came into their most impotant match of the season without all-area senior Carolynn Wieland and talented freshman Alexa Landsberger. BG later lost Sara Brawley and Jessica Ahumada to injuries.
“I am so proud of this team, because they never gave in, even after injuries, and they played one of the top teams in the conference and around the area about as close as they could for the 80-plus minutes tonight,” said Bison coach Pat Dudle.
During the early stages, it was clear the Huskies (16-3-2, 8-1-0-24 points) planned to target Weyhrich and Lauren Gierman up top. The Bison, meanwhile, were looking to play through Kovach, Kelli and Colleen Zickert, and asking Busse to hold and distribute from up top.
“There’s a lot of players that we didn’t really know much about, and they made things tough on us,” said Boyle.
The Bison lost Brawley at 28 minutes, but Dudle reshuffled the deck along the back, and Courtney Carlton, Shannon Guercio and Skylar Groth never missed a beat.
The Huskies began to find their pace after the break and continued to cause the Bison problems by sending balls into or near the 6-yard box, with keeper Katie Okamoto, strong all evening long, taking all of the troublesome balls out of the air with confidence.
The depth of the Bison roster was tested a little bit more when Ahumade was injured and carted off in the 68th minute, and after a long delay to get the freshman attended to, the speed of play and sense of urgency from both sides rose substantially.
The visitors went ahead at 71 minutes after Hersey keeper Morgan Harris somehow turned away a Busse point-blank missile. But Busse kept running and finished to stun the big senior night crowd.
Abel pushed Nicole Pietro up alongside Gierman and Weyhrich, and the trio immeidiately revved up the Huskies’ attack.
Weyhrich collected a helper from Gierman from the near side, and weaved her way around and clear of a pair of defenders before firing in the equalizer four minutes from time.
Okamoto saved a shot on frame from Gierman, then a Stasiuk header in the 80th minute to send the match into overtime.
Boyle then capped a night to remember for the Hersey faithful when she flashed across the middle, then turned, and hit her left-footed long-range winner.
“The girls are visibly upset with the result,” said Dudle, “but now they must regroup and pull themselves together to finish out the last week of the regular season before going after a regional title in a couple of weeks.”