Girls soccer: Buffalo Grove blanks Prospect to wrap up MSL East title
Mid-Suburban League East power Buffalo Grove clinched its first division girls soccer title in four years Friday night at Grant Blaney Stadium with a 4-0 victory over visiting Prospect.
The Bison (9-4-3, 6-2-2) will face either Barrington or Fremd next Friday night in Buffalo Grove in the 31st annual MSL Soccer Bowl.
"We had a slow start to the season with injuries, and a couple of tough losses, but we've been playing better each time out. But I feel like we're peaking at the right time, so we'll be ready to play our best game of the season against either Barrington or Fremd," said Pam Bolis, one of a handful of four-year veterans on the Bison roster.
"We've worked hard to get into the Soccer Bowl, and I really feel like once we have gotten into our conference schedule our play has improved," added midfielder Quinlan Libit, who, like Bolis, has enjoyed a wonderful four-year career.
The home side took advantage of a young Knights club (3-5-2, 3-4-2) that featured seven freshmen and sophomores in its starting eleven, including keeper Lily Barich, who was named starter for the first time this season.
"Buffalo Grove has a lot of talented players, and after we struggled in the first 15 minutes of the game I felt like we played extremely well and at times had a lot of the play also," said Prospect coach Tom Froats.
The first chance of the contest came in the 11th minute and it would be Giana Palano who took full advantage when Bolis sent her through on the right side.
Palano would send her low drive from the right side into the far side of the net to give the Bison the perfect start to the important game.
Bolis, BG's leading goal scorer, added another one on the scoresheet four minutes later after a nice one-two combination with teammate Eva Ruterschmidt.
"Jackie Keane and Isabella Hubrich did a great job for us as our center-backs tonight despite those two early goals," said Froats. "No. 18 (Bolis) is a big, strong and fast forward, but Jackie did very well against one of the top players in our conference."
Libit would make it 3-0 just before the intermission with a marvelous strike from 25 yards, taking down a throw from Bolis and in one motion hitting an unstoppable left-footed one-timer.
Palano would record her double in the 46th minute when her looping effort from the left side found its way into the upper right corner.
"I am very proud of the effort the girls gave tonight. The message we gave afterwards was there's still plenty of time through our training sessions to be our best in time for regionals in two weeks," said Froats, whose team will host MSL West-leading Barrington next Wednesday night.
"This team has quality players all throughout our roster. It just took us some time to get healthy for us to play our best soccer of the year," said BG coach Pat Dudle.