Girls soccer: Maine West takes down Leyden
Maine West continued its remarkable 2019 girls soccer season with a 4-1 Senior Night victory over visiting Leyden Monday evening in Des Plaines.
Jocelyn Pantoja's early opener, followed by Dylan Van Fleet's first-half double, helped the Warriors (12-3-2, 3-0-2) get off to a flying start against a young but talented Leyden (7-14-1) club that played hard for 80 minutes, witnessed by a goal in the 80th minute to dash the hopes of a shutout by the home side.
"We got out to a good start, accomplished pretty much what we set out to do, which was to get everyone plenty of minutes to get ourselves ready for regionals while resting a few players who are a little dinged up right now," said Warriors head coach Jeff Bishop.
"Leyden has a great young team, with eight freshmen on its roster, several of which impressed tonight so we had an opponent who was physical and played hard, which is exactly what we need right now."
The Warriors, who finished second overall behind Central Suburban League North champion Glenbrook North, will complete their regular season with a crossover at Glenbrook South on Tuesday, then begin to train for their regional opener next week at home against Payton College Prep (10-6-2), which advanced into the Chicago Public League semifinals.
Van Fleet, who has an outside chance at 20 goals this season, doubled the Warriors' advantage in the 14th minute, after Pantoja finished in close following a Sarah Magnoni corner in the 6th minute.
It quickly became 3-0 on Van Fleet's second, this one coming after a clever looping early ball into space from Madeline Roppel, which would spring Van Fleet free and in on Leyden keeper Gabriela Valdez.
The junior could not be faulted on any of the Warriors' goals, and would earn plenty of praise from her coach, John Schiemann.
"Gabby was unbelievable for us tonight. She saved three or four from going into the back of the net, and was absolutely amazing on that one sequence in the first half when she went post-to-post to make the save," he said.
The double save Schiemann spoke of came moments before Van Fleet scored her first goal that saw her smash a close-range blast off Vanessa Reyes toward the near post.
Valdez turned that effort away but in doing so allowed a rebound to fall to Serenah Quiroga at the back post.
Valdez was quick to react going the other way to stop Quiroga.
"Our record this season is a little deceiving because we've played a lot of our opponents really close but the way we start has been our downfall," suggested Schiemann. "I think a lot of that is our youth and inexperience so I know the growing pains we're going through this season will be a great help to us in the future."
Two of those young players Schiemann is so high on are Jacqueline Jacinto and Jazmin Contreras, who leads the club with 9 goals but it was senior Catherine Saponieri who spoiled the Warriors' shutout with her 80th-minute strike.
"Number 16 (Sarah Magnoni) is a defensive rock for Maine West in the back, and Jeff has a really nice looking team this season," said Schiemann.
"We're looking forward to getting a good look at a very good opponent in Glenbrook South (Tuesday) but I know both of us will not be playing our regulars the entire night," said Bishop. "In the past, our players have been a little leery about playing top-notch opponents, but this group is different. They are confident and always ready for a good challenge."