Girls lacrosse: Neuqua Valley, St. Charles co-op take a pause
Seems like the weather never makes it easy in the spring sports season.
Once again Mother Nature was a sourpuss Tuesday in a girls lacrosse supersectional at Schaumburg between Neuqua Valley and the St. Charles co-op.
Lightning began with 10:49 to go in the game and St. Charles 8-6 behind 4 goals from senior captain Makayla Thomas. Junior midfielder Lauren Reitzel and senior midfielder Christine Corbin each scored a pair for Neuqua Valley.
The suspended game will be made up at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Schaumburg.
"The weather is always a distraction, so you have to get it out of your head and just focus on the playing," said Thomas, who is up to 42 goals this season, including Tuesday's haul.
"I think when we come back, we're going to be ready. We have a whole night to rest and get ready for the next 11 minutes."
Thomas scored goals to start each half, the second of which was a drive to the left where she pivoted off a defender and fired a shot into the right side of the net. Less than two minutes later, at 22:47, she caught a pass in the crease from senior Maddie Wiltrout and deposited into the center of the net.
Just before the lightning came, Thomas added another goal from the top of the crease to set the current score.
"Since she's been a freshman, Makayla has been reliable," said St. Charles coach Ronnie Kluener. "She has been a key person on the field for us. She's never let us down and I don't think she will this year either."
As the teams found shelter in the Schaumburg High School field house, Neuqua Valley coach John Scanlon was pleased with what he saw from his crew through the first nearly 40 minutes.
Reitzel was her usual self, scoring on a drive straight on top shelf with 6:08 to go in the first half, to cut St. Charles' lead to 3-2. She added a penalty shot goal early in the second half as well.
Senior Brenda Anderson made perhaps the play of the night at the first-half buzzer, making a shot from the upper left of the crease to cut her team's deficit to just 4-3 at the half.
Corbin added two goals within about a minute of each other midway through the second half to once again reduce the deficit to 7-6. But Thomas's fourth goal made the score 8-6.
"I think they are playing pretty good," Scanlon said. "There were a couple mistakes, but overall, I'm really happy with them. They are sticking in there with them. We'll make the corrections and tomorrow's another day.
"We treat it as a new day, we're only down by 2. We're not out of this by any means."