Uveges’ return lifts South Elgin over Bartlett

It’s perfectly normal for teenagers not to listen to their parents.

A concerned Robbe Uveges would know, especially on Thursday night, when her daughter Savanah went ahead and decided it would be the night for her South Elgin soccer debut, regardless of how much rain fell or would fall on the Millennium Field turf.

“She didn’t want me to play tonight because of how wet the grass was, but I waited too long to not play,” said Savanah Uveges.

Hopefully mom will let this one slide because Uveges, who bounced back from an ACL she tore last July, managed to chip in the game-winning goal during the 76th minute off a steal just 15 yards from the goal to cap a 3-2 Upstate Eight Valley Division win over U-46 rival Bartlett.

The junior standout, who came back in 6 months to join the Storm’s basketball team in January, wanted to make her presence felt in her return.

“I didn’t want just want to come back and try to not make a difference out there, I wanted to make a difference wherever I am,” said Uveges, who took some time off from soccer after basketball and played in her first game of the season Thursday.

“So I tried to make the biggest impact I could and I really wanted to hustle and get to every ball and do everything I could to kind of prove myself, that I can come back off my ACL and everything. It’s been a long road.”

Some tense moments came in the first half when Uveges collided with Bartlett goalie Amanda Lozada while crashing the net on a shot attempt. Uveges got up just fine. Late in the second half, she had three chances down the right baseline but came up empty. With the game on the line however, Uveges finally found a way to find the back of the net.

“I’m happy Savanah put that one in, I know she was hungry for it,” said South Elgin coach Tiffany Disher. “She’s been super excited being back out there on the pitch for days and to see the scoring spread throughout the team, that’s just something we take pride in, as working well as a team and working together.”

Bartlett (8-5, 1-1) took a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute when Kaitlin Brohan hit the left corner post which Shelly Lyjak tapped it in for the early lead. But in the 31st minute, Delaney Kelleher had a similar putback to tie it up when Uveges crossed one for Becca Underwood, whose shot was deflected before Kelleher tapped in. Just before the half, Jen Salas finished off a corner kick from Alyssa Shipon for a 2-1 Storm (5-2-1, 2-1) lead after 40 minutes.

“The girls like to make it interesting,” Disher said. “After we beat Bartlett in the tournament 2-0 the first time, they came out a little hungrier than us and that worked against us.”

Bartlett evened things up 7 minutes into the second half when Brohan slid one past Jordan Vaulkner unassisted for a 2-2 tie. Unfortunately for Bartlett coach Heather Thomas, that momentum didn’t last for very long.

“We just fell apart the last eight minutes,” said Thomas. “We played good pockets at a time, but the last eight minutes we played poor soccer. We didn’t do what we had to do to stop Uveges.”

Jourdan Vaulkner had 10 saves in net for the Storm while Lozada had 8 saves for Bartlett.