Rivera’s goal lifts Jacobs past Dundee-Crown
Jacobs defender Margaret Rivera called the coin toss the Golden Eagles lost to Dundee-Crown Tuesday night unlucky.
But considering how the game ended, it was probably the best thing to happen for Jacobs.
The toss determined who had the wind in the first half, and it was important since the wind gusted to 30 mph throughout. Dundee-Crown had it first and scored. Jacobs had it last. And?
With the wind at her back Rivera cashed in on a corner kick from the right of the goal with 46 seconds remaining in the match, a shot that sailed into the net near the far left post and concluded matters in a come-from-behind 2-1 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win over the Chargers in Algonquin.
With good weather came good fortune for Jacobs (6-8-1, 2-2), which rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the final 40 minutes. It wasn’t when you had the wind, it was what you did with it that counted most.
“The way the wind was, once (the kick) started, once it went off my foot, oh, that has potential to go in,” said Rivera, who wasn’t expecting it to go in. “Because of the wind, I knew it was going toward the back of the post. The most I could do was put it as close to the back post as I could because the goalie started at the front post — which is not normal because the goalie is in the back. The best angle was for them to get to the back post, and be able to get that touch.”
Instead, nobody touched it as it hit the back of the net. It was the last of 2-straight Jacobs goals, the other by Rachel Romano off a rebound shot by Talia Surges in 47th minute. That score erased what D-C put together in the first half, a good half to say the least for the Chargers.
D-C (5-13, 1-2) had the luxury of the wind at that point and on 9 shots managed to put one home on Ashley Raby’s goal from 30 yards out in the 12th minute. Not only did they control possession, the Chargers forced Jacobs goalie Ellie Samin into 5 saves. But Samin had some help from the crossbar on two occasions in the second half when Dundee-Crown had some chances to widen the gap. D-C put up only 3 shots in the second half while Jacobs finished with 7, 5 in the second half.
“I told the girls, the scoreboard doesn’t show it, but I thought we won that game. I thought they played really hard,” said Chargers coach Sebastian Falinski. “I thought we had three great chances in the second half going against the wind that we could have finished to put the game away.
“We talked about not giving up corners late in games and defending them, unfortunately, the wind just took it upper-90.”
Jacobs coach A.J. Cappello acknowledged the wind factor.
“The wind changes the game completely,” he said. “You don’t always want to admit it, but it changes the game.”
While D-C wanted to drop back and not give up any free runs with the ball over the top, Falinski wanted the Chargers to play left and right instead of playing vertical up the field.
Cappello, who credited the Charger defense, spoke of his team’s in the first the first half.
“We gave up some soft goals last week so may be it was a blessing in disguise,” said Cappello. “We just reaffirmed the basics of defending and keeping lighter on your feet rather than stepping in and committing so we went back to some of the basics in the last few games, to remind ourselves to defend the right way.”