Girls soccer: Prairie Ridge blanks FVC's No. 1 seed Cary-Grove

For someone who normally plays on Prairie Ridge's next-to-last line of defense, Grace Marineau proved adept at being the last line.

The senior defender-turned-goalkeeper came up with a pair of crucial saves in the second half as the Wolves defeated Cary-Grove, 1-0, in their Fox Valley Conference match Tuesday.

Marineau's first career full game in goal ended up as the first time C-G was shut out this season.

"It's heat of the moment. I just had to have confidence back there, even though I was freaking out," Marineau said. "I just had to keep calm and collected. I had to give my best effort."

Marineau's saves preserved the game's lone goal from Chelsea Gale, off Alexis Celentano's assist in the first half. C-G (8-1) finished with the FVC's best regular-season record and enters the FVC Tournament as the No. 1 seed.

"Grace Marineau has had about 18 minutes of training in goal," said Wolves coach Mark Lewis, whose team is 7-2. "We felt confident in her, but we did not expect her to make the two saves she made. We're extremely proud of her and the team.

"We knew Cary's absolutely stacked in the middle with Katie Jannusch, Jordan Dale and Kate Larry, so we decided we were going to try to play around them rather than through them. We got a little scrappy toward the end. They don't give up and we have nothing but respect for (C-G) coach (Ray) Krystal and his program."

The two teams know one another well, with several girls who play as travel teammates.

"It's really exciting for sure, especially since we know so many people on their team," Gale said. "There was some smack talk going around. Coming off two losses in our past two games, not having scored in either, we were really ready, really wanting to win. Get something going before we get into the conference tournament and the playoffs."

Celentano crossed a ball from the right side in the 21st minute that Gale knocked in for the game's lone goal.

"I ran up and got a tap on it to go a different direction that I think threw off their goalie," Gale said. "I was just lucky to get a tap on it, it was a fantastic ball by Alexis."

After that, the Wolves stuck with their plan to go around the middle. They had a 9-4 edge in shots on goal for the game.

"We switched up our formation, today we played a 4-5-1, it was my first time playing center back," defender Lucy Klimkowski said. "Our goal was to get the ball outside and get our quick players, Ellie King and Alexis, up the line. We did that perfectly today."

Larry had a shot to tie the score from about 25 yards out with 14 minutes remaining. Marineau knocked it up with her right hand, the ball hit the crossbar and she grabbed it.

With 8:00 to go, Jannusch got a shot from the right side about 15 yards out that Marineau was able to tip over the goal out of bounds.

"She's normally a defender," Klimkowski said. "I'm astounded with how amazing she played."

Krystal thought the game was typical for the two teams.

"It was a hard-fought game between two opponents who know each other," he said. "Both sides are very excited to play this game. It's always going to be a battle. That's what they expected. That's what we expected as well."

Dale likes that the Trojans earned the top seed for the FVC Tournament.

"I'm really proud of our team," Dale said. "We really grew together. At this point we have to get ready for the tournament. Hopefully we can see PR again and beat them there."