Girls soccer: Duenas delivers key goal as Glenbard East snaps out of offensive struggles

The first varsity goal for Glenbard East junior midfielder Izel Duenas couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

Her Rams team came into Friday night’s match at rival Willowbrook in a goal-scoring drought. They had found the back of the net only once in four games en route to an 0-3-1 record, although that mark was misleading.

Glenbard East had started the season by playing an extremely tough schedule, and two of their opening losses were by just one goal.

Still, when the game against the Warriors went to the 23rd minute still scoreless, a little bit of doubt might have been creeping in.

Then Duenas, who played her first two seasons on JV, changed all that. She took a feed from classmate Jessica Gilleran and blasted a shot from 21 yards that just eluded Willowbrook keeper Heidi Urrieta Rosas and put the visitors up 1-0.

The Rams rode that momentum into the second half, tallying four more times in a 5-0 nonconference victory.

“We accomplished today what we’ve been trying to do all season,” said Duenas. “(That goal) was just a really happy moment for the entire team.”

“Tonight we did better,” she added. “We all had a good start, we connected better, we were hopeful, and continued to push throughout the entire game.”

Willowbrook stayed right with Glenbard East and went to intermission trailing by just one, but couldn’t find their footing in the final 40 minutes.

“We felt that we were going to have a good game today,” said Warriors coach Dwayne Cruz. “I think we might have panicked a little bit in the rivalry that it is. We got a little stressed in the second half. "

Cruz added that after the second and third goal from Glenbard East early in the second stanza, he thought his players “might have put their heads down a little bit.”

He also said he told his team in the postgame talk that his side has to learn to handle rivalry games a little bit better.

“Don’t panic, and don’t worry,” he said, “because if you make a little mistake, you’ll get it back. A mistake won’t be the end of the world, but I think it’s hard because we played Downers Grove South this week and it was a great game (a tough OT loss for the Warriors).

“This one we expected to be a great game but some mental errors cost us. Without a doubt, though, they (Glenbard East) were the better team today.”

Junior forward Sam Anderson scored the first two goals of the second half for Glenbard East, in the 45th and 47th minutes.

“We did a good job collaborating today,” Anderson said. “Our heads were in the right place.”

Willowbrook, which has already scored three victories on the season (they're 3-4-0) and has scored 9 goals on the year, fought hard in half number two but couldn’t get many shots on net. Their best chance came on a 37-yard free kick by Meara Sutton that was right on frame but was turned away on a good defensive play by Anderson.

Teagan Murphy and Nora Opila had the final two scores for Glenbard East.

“Feels really good to score five goals,” Anderson said. “We came into this game (with the mindset) of just going out and getting a win. We needed a win to kick the season off, and we came in and did just that.”