Conant in command of MSL West race
At this point, everything is in Conant’s hands.
The Cougars have stayed far in front of Mid-Suburban West girls soccer divisional rivals Fremd, Schaumburg and Barrington, and on Monday the Cougars came a step closer to pulling away from all of them in the race to earn a spot in the MSL Soccer Cup next week.
The Cougars (14-2-0, 9-0-0, 27 points) overwhelmed visiting Prospect 4-0 to keep 3 points ahead of second-place Fremd. A victory on Wednesday against Palatine would clinch Conant’s first appearance in the league championship match since 2001.
“We aren’t getting too far ahead of ourselves, but we have a real strong rivalry with Fremd, and that’s all the motivation any of us need to help keep us focused and winning every game that we can in order to win our division,” said Conant junior midfielder Chrissy Rosales, who in the first half-hour helped dominate the midfield exchanges and help put the Knights (8-8-2, 2-6-2) on the defensive from the opening whistle.
“We had heard how good a team Conant was, and tonight we witnessed first-hand just how good they are,” said Prospect coach Tom Froats. “They knock the ball around with precision, and with speed and quickness, and they can be dangerous in a lot of different ways.”
Cougars all-state striker Courtney Raetzman, along with her partners up top, Kaitlin Chiero and Rosales, were the reason most of the play was one-way in the first half. If not for some brilliant work by Knights keeper Megan McCabe, the score could have been worse before intermission.
Raetzman, who seemed to be playing at a higher level, was sent through at seven minutes by Rosales but was ruled offsides after putting the ball past McCabe.
Moments later, Raetzman broke down the Knights’ defense with a dazzling crossfield serve to the left side. If not for a superb point-blank stop by McCabe on Alyssa Rawleigh, the Cougars would have opened the scoring contest at 11 minutes.
McCabe needed full extension to pull a would-be goal off the boot of Chiero at 17 minutes. Then it was Raetzman’s turn to be denied when Paige Wentzel and Rawleigh helped provide the Cougars’ scoring leader a chance in the 19th minute.
“McCabe is a fantastic keeper for them, and she made a couple of great saves on us in that first half,” said Conant coach Jason Franco.
But McCabe had little chance to stop Courtney O’Keefe’s blast into the upper 90 after the Knights were unable to clear a Drew Wentzel corner out of the area.
Alyssa Altosino doubled the Cougars’ lead two minutes later when she chipped McCabe from 22 yards.
“Obviously, everything begins with Courtney, and we just weren’t able to do much tonight to stop her from doing what she does so well, and that’s distributing to her teammates and creating so much trouble in her opponent’s end,” said McCabe.
The Knights struggled to get anything going in their attack. On the few occasions when they did find either Lizzy Robinson, Jesse Petrovski or Elena Cukurs, the Cougars’ backline led by Kelsey Foss and Wentzel ended the threat. That made it a fairly routine night for Conant keeper Lindsay Fillingim.
Raetzman made it 3-0 just five minutes into the second half when she shielded her marker long enough to get some space and struck past the outstretched gloves of McCabe.
Chiero and O’Keefe set up a Wentzel goal to push the lead to 4-0 before Franco began to rest his starters.
“We’ve got a very difficult match on Wednesday against Palatine, which is always ready, and will play you hard for 80 minutes — and we know that Willie (Filian) will have his team revved up for us,” said Franco. “But one more win does it for us, and I know our team will be ready for that night as well.”