Girls soccer: Hinsdale Central spoils Glenbard West's plans
Senior goalkeeper Rose Mugnani and her Glenbard West girls soccer teammates liked what they saw from their new defensive formation last week.
"The defense does really well most every game," Mugnani said.
The Hilltoppers nearly pulled off another big road shutout Tuesday, but Hinsdale Central scored a crazy goal with 7:32 remaining for a 1-0 West Suburban Conference Silver victory in Hinsdale. The Hilltoppers defeated Nazareth 1-0 last Thursday.
"We played really hard the whole game so it was tough to lose on that," Mugnani said.
Hinsdale Central sophomore Haley Arnold scored her first goal this season by using her stomach to run in the rebound of senior Mackensie Cruickshank's initial shot that Mugnani deflected near the right post.
Glenbard West senior central defender Anne Gelfer, helping to clear the rebound, said from her vantage point that the ball didn't completely cross the goal line.
"The edge was partly in, but it wasn't all the way over," Gelfer said.
"The new formation has been helping us out a lot. It's a big adjustment for defense, offense and midfield. I think if we keep practicing it, things will get better and we'll get more offensive chances."
The Hilltoppers (4-8, 0-2) were outshot 14-8 (8-4 shots on goal) and 5-4 on corner kicks but received an admirable effort from the new three defender-two midfielder combinations involving Gelfer, senior Mary Swikle and junior Catherine Cavanagh on the back line and senior midfielders Madison Jurgovan, Sydney Peters and Liz Hughes.
The Red Devils (3-5-2, 2-0) especially pressed hard the latter part of the second half, although the Hilltoppers had a potentially dangerous last-second corner kick that Cruickshank headed out of the crease.
"Our defense played well. I think we got tired at the end and let them cut middle. Then they were getting good, open shots on the keeper and eventually one's going to go in," Glenbard West coach Morgan Kasperek said.
"We've been playing some pretty good soccer. I think we can play better. We need to be more aggressive offensively. Defensively, we're holding our own."
The aggressiveness and hustle by Arnold to score on the rebound was commended by first-year Hinsdale Central coach Bryan Ciesiulka. Arnold also wasn't sure what happened on the goal as play momentarily continued until the referee's signal.
"I just thought it didn't go in because I didn't see it in the back of the net," Arnold said. "I was like, 'It didn't go in?' but then one of my teammates ran up to me like, 'You scored.' I was like, 'Oh yeah.' "
Offensively, the Hilltoppers had perhaps the best scoring chance of the first half in the 38th minute, but senior Sophia Cavalcante's open shot in the middle of the crease was thwarted by sophomore goalie Taylor Ward. Senior Emma Wallace and Jurgovan also had many dangerous balls.
With similar defensive efforts, the Hilltoppers hope to add to their shutouts, which so far have come in all four victories.
"We've never played with the juniors and some of the sophomores before so this is a new transition for us, but defensively it's been going really well," Gelfer said. "We have really good chemistry and we can talk to each other a lot so that's really nice."
The Red Devils have achieved their three shutouts over the last four games. This was their second game since losing starting senior midfielder Jane Cole to a season-ending knee injury April 9.
"We've been kind of looking for the right combinations so far," Ciesiulka said. "We're staying on our defenders every day like, 'Hey, you guys don't get to take plays off because if you do we get scored on,' but today they did a great job. They're getting better every week."