Girls soccer: Buffalo Grove blanks Prospect

It was a tale of two halves Friday afternoon at Grant Blaney Stadium.

Host Buffalo Grove struggled during the first 40 minutes, then turned things around with a terrific second half of play to claim a comfortable 3-0 victory over Prospect.

“Our energy wasn’t where it needed to be in the first half, but we talked about that at the break, and it helped us come together to play a much better second half to get ourselves an important win in our division,” said Bison senior Taylore Camel, who bagged one of three second half goals.

“It was a very good overall team win,” added coach Pat Dudle, whose club is now 2-2-1, and 1-1-0 in league play.

Visiting Prospect, in search of its first victory of the season, was clearly the better side during the opening period.

Seniors Maddy Mann, Ella Sommers and captains Abby Davis and Julia Valentini were at the heart of a Knights (0-4-2 0-1-1) attack that had plenty of pace, purpose and passing partnership to keep the home side from going forward.

Yet they were not sharp enough in the final third to create quality chances at Bison keeper Emily Aparicio Bahena.

"We did a lot of good things in order to get ourselves in (their) end. But we just were not dynamic enough in close to be dangerous when we got deep into their end," said Knights coach Mike Andrews who runs the boys program, and took over for long-time coach Tom Froats who retired following the 2022-2023 school year.

"We lost a lot of players from a year ago, and now we're a very young team that will need time to come together as a group," echoed both Davis and Valentini.

After a goal-less first half, freshman Amanda Kowalski claimed the opener at 52 minutes when on the end of a nicely played buildup she finished through a lovely helper from Oliva Larkowski from in close.

Just seven minutes later, the aforementioned Taylore Camel doubled the Bison advantage with her well directed angled effort into the far left side in which Knights keeper Sarah Bradbury had no chance to turn away.

Sommers went wide at 73 minutes before a well struck 22-yard blast from Davis was saved by Aparico Bahena.

Three minutes from time, senior Brooke Wells made it 3-0 after a brilliant turn, then sublime finish ended the scoring.

"It was a perfect way to end a very good day of soccer for us," said Dudle of the Wells goal.

Next up for the Bison is an away match at Waukegan on Monday, while the Knights host Wheeling also on Monday in a MSL East contest.