Girls soccer: Schaumburg savors first victory
Second-half strikes from Dana Kiszkowski and Katie Smith helped Schaumburg's girls soccer team sink host Elk Grove 2-1 Monday night in a MSL crossover matchup at Robert Haskell Memorial Stadium.
The Saxons got their first victory of the season and lifted Greg Charvat's club level in the MSL after a 3-0 loss to Fremd in its league opener back on March 21.
"We really needed this one tonight," said Charvat, whose club had been shut out in its three previous games prior to Monday evening. "It was good on several levels - we scored for the first time this year, got ourselves our first win of the year while earning 3 points, which is always difficult to do in our conference."
The visitors started this rainy night on its front foot with some terrific play from Gina D'Orazio and Al Schaar. They helped control the midfield by winning plenty of first and second balls, while directing a Saxons attack which looked the more threatening of the two sides in the first quarter-hour.
"After losing our first three games of the year, this was a big one for us to win because it gives us momentum heading into the St. Charles East tournament," said D'Orazio, a senior.
The Saxons will make their annual visit to the Augsburg-Drach tourney, which begins for them this Wednesday afternoon against Geneva in the first of three games this week.
"We've been looking to get more out of our midfield, and the move of (Schaar) from up top into the midfield helped us a lot tonight," said Charvat.
The Grens (1-4-0, 0-1-0) were forced to defend with all their might, and they remained unruffled despite a handful of half-chances in the early going, the best coming from Katie Farb and D'Orazio.
"Schaumburg had the best of it in the first 15-20 minutes, but once we settled in we were able to get back into the game, while getting a few chances of our own along the way," said Elk Grove coach Dan Klaus.
The best opportunity of the first half for the Grens came from freshman Emily Sitkowski at 13 minutes, and another by Kate Talens, who ran onto a ball on the right side before firing wide of Saxons keeper Emily Reddy.
With Schaar having her left-footed drive sail wide, and Emma Aguilar, Smith and Kiszkowski creating chances but unable to finish for the visitors, the relief from finally putting one into the back of the net just after the break did not go unnoticed by D'Orazio.
"Dana's goal gave all of us so much confidence," D'Orazio said. "It was something we really needed after going three games without a goal."
The Grens' failure to clear the area would cost them when Abigail Paolicchi put a nice ball onto the foot of Kiszkowski, who finished under keeper Rachel Kandefer in the 45th minute from in close.
"In a tight game like this, we really need to do the simple things much better, such as in that instance, when all we had to do was pound the ball out of our box," said Klaus.
The hosts created consecutive corners for Emily Sitkowski to deliver into the Saxons' box, but nothing came of it.
At 63 minutes, the visitors doubled their advantage when Smith steered a low shot past Kandefer, despite having a pair of Grens draped all over the freshman.
Elk Grove showed its resolve when it drew closer on Kate Talens' well-driven low drive past Reddy from 22 yards in the 75th minute.
"We've been able to score off of two corners from Emily in other games, but we didn't come close to doing so tonight, and that's another area we need to get better at as we go forward," said Klaus.
The Grens next play division rival Wheeling on Wednesday.