Girls soccer: Barthelt boots South Elgin past Bartlett
South Elgin coach Laura Snow's pregame talk Wednesday night was a prophetic one.
She told her team that one goal could determine its Upstate Eight Conference match with Bartlett. And one score did make an impact.
Katrina Barthelt's penalty kick goal early in the second half was the difference-maker in the Storm's 1-0 victory at Millennium Field.
The victory, which raised the Storm's conference record to 5-0-2, also kept the team in the thick of the conference race.
"I knew going into this game with so many of them knowing each other that it was going to be a tight one," Snow said. "I told them at the beginning, one goal could be the difference in this game and that's exactly what happened."
Barthelt, dribbling the ball just inside Bartlett's penalty box, collided with a Hawk defender and was awarded a penalty kick. Her shot went into the right corner of the net in the 47th minute.
"A lot of emotion went through me before the kick. I was thinking I missed one before but I got this," said Barthelt, a freshman. "I just needed to keep calm even though everything was rushing through me and there were so many people out there. I went for the corner and the shot was hard and low."
The Storm, with an overall record of 10-4-2, is currently atop the UEC with two league contests to play. West Aurora is right behind with a 5-1-1 record.
"We have two big games next week. We have Glenbard South and West Aurora, two other teams that are up at the top with us," said Snow. "We have to come prepared and ready for that, but I just told my team this is the momentum that we need."
While Hawks coach Vince Revak was pleased with his defense, he would like to see the offense become more productive, since the regionals start in less than two weeks.
"Bottom line we've got figure out how to put the ball into the back of net. It would be great if we could always hold the other team to zeros but there are certain games, we need everyone to step up," Revak said. "As much as we ask our defense for a shutout every game, we need our offense to start making some goals because I don't want to go to PKs in regional play."
The Storm also put a damper on Bartlett's senior night.
"Obviously the result wasn't what we wanted but recently the score sheet hasn't shown the drive and effort we put into the game," said Bartlett senior and co-captain Paige Bednarke. "The results aren't showing how good BHS soccer is."
The loss drops Bartlett to 6-9-2 overall and 4-2 in the conference.