Zydek’s touch powers Hersey
Eileen Zydek admits she will never be mistaken for a goal-scorer. But Friday night, when her club needed it most, she became just that.
The Hersey senior struck twice for the hosts, both off dead-ball opportunities, to help the Huskies (12-4-1, 5-3-1, 16 points) defeat Rolling Meadows 2-0 in a key Mid-Suburban East match in Arlington Heights.
The Huskies move 4 points clear of the Mustangs (11-4-0, 4-3-0, 12), who one week ago looked to be closing in on a division title.
“We were really down after we dropped that 2-1 loss to Palatine the other night,” said Zydek, “but coach (Brad) Abel told all of us to forget that match and get back after it against Hoffman Estates, which we did, then get ready for Rolling Meadows, which we all knew was probably our most important game of the season.”
“We’re obviously still not healthy, and when we lost Ann Marie (Lynch) later, when she cramped up, we just couldn’t get anything going,” said Meadows coach Jeff Adkins. “We gave up 2 goals off of set-piece plays, but it wasn’t only that. Hersey was the better side tonight.”
In the early stages, it looked as though the Mustangs would need only a short amount of time before finding the back of the net as Lynch roamed freely through the midfield while organizing a focused attack to help keep the pressure on the Huskies.
“Lynch is such a terrific player, and in the first 15 minutes (or) so, we didn’t really have an answer for her,” said Abel. “But we also knew if we could neutralize her that our chances to control the middle would have an impact of the eventual outcome of the game. And with Lauren Gierman and Megan Boyle doing that for us, the run of play began to turn in our favor, and then it was the all-out defensive effort which really helped us control most of the second half.”
Huskies keeper Erin Reiff was tested just once in the first half, when an Alex Partipilo corner was sent sharply to the near post at nine minutes. At the other end, things got a little tense just before intermission after a Gierman free kick from 30 yards fell to the floor at near the spot. If not for an alert clear from Lynch, the Huskies would have likely thumped in a shot past keeper Emily Haeger.
Gierman and teammates Boyle and Nicole Pietro helped the Huskies get off to a sparkling start to the second half.
Gierman’s corner found Stefanie Mueller in close, and her header was deflected over the bar. Moments later, Zydek snuck a header of her own just inside the back post off another well-paced corner from the Gierman.
“We didn’t really relax after that first goal — in fact, I thought we did a great job of attacking and keeping the pressure on until we got that second goal from Eileen,” said Abel.
The Mustangs responded following the first goal of the match at 44 minutes with an enterprising counter, with Lynch the early provider, and Maggie Moran and Jackie Kemph getting deep into the Huskies’ end on the left side. But the Mustangs conceded a handful of deep throws, most thrown with tremendous pace off of flip-throws from Gina Giancola, and they began to cause trouble for Meadows.
Zydek ran onto a 30-yard missile from Giancola, and suddenly the home side doubled its lead in the 52nd minute.
With the Huskies winning nearly every 50-50 and second ball and tackling from touchline to touchline, the Mustangs never got close to cutting into the lead.
“I don’t really know what happened to us in that second half, but it was all Hersey,” said Adkins. “We have four games left to go, beginning with Conant tomorrow at home, and we need to find a way to get ourselves some points against the rest of our schedule, which includes Buffalo Grove, Fremd and Barrington.”
Abel says his club is in a waiting game, as it still has Schaumburg and Fremd ahead.
“We absolutely had to win tonight,” said Able, “and now we’ll wait and see what happens tomorrow with the Conant-Rolling Meadows result, then begin to focus on two elite teams in Schaumburg, then Fremd. It’s that simple.”