Girls soccer: Bartlett blanks Schaumburg
Upstate Eight Conference girls soccer champion Bartlett found it tough going against Schaumburg (3-6-4), which made things difficult for the No. 6 seed Hawks for nearly an hour until a Serena Salvato goal in the 63rd minute dashed the hopes of the No. 11 seed Saxons, who fell 2-0 in a regional semifinal Wednesday afternoon at Millennium Field in Streamwood.
Next up for the Hawks will be No. 3 Wheaton-Warrenville South (11-4-0) Friday evening at Red Grange Field in Wheaton.
"We were not as sharp as we have been of late. Some of that was obviously due to Schaumburg, which played us very well and some of that, and it's not an excuse, is because we've been playing on our field at Bartlett, which is narrow, and natural grass," said Hawks coach Vince Revak.
"It took us over a half of soccer to adjust to the speed of play on the turf and I believe some of us, who are seniors, realized we could be playing our last high school game so we played nervous. It was nice to get this first game of the playoffs out of the way," said Salvato.
The Hawks would get off to the perfect start when Lauren Kowalski bagged the opener in the 5th minute with a sublime first-touch finish inside the six-yard box.
The Saxons, stunned by the early goal, needed the first quarter hour to back off of their heels and once they did, they gave the Hawks little time and space, particularly in the middle of the park where sophomore Brisa Baldwin proved to a disruptive force all throughout the afternoon.
"The girls played hard all throughout, and we took away a lot of the things they do well but we only created a couple of good chances, none of which came from our set-piece opportunities, which this season we've done a pretty good job of finishing off of," said Saxons coach Greg Charvat, who will lose just four seniors off a roster that had 11 freshmen and sophomores.
The Saxons were on their front foot after the intermission, earning a pair of deep throws and two balls sent into the box, but junior Sabrian Fowler, the Hawks' outstanding central defender, seemed always there to carry any trouble of out of the area.
Salvato would do all the work after collecting a nicely played ball from Viviana Alba, bursting up the left side to the end line before driving her effort into the far inside netting, forcing the Saxons to chase 2 goals for the final 17 minutes.
"We played a lot of kickball today, which is something we normally do not do but it was still nice to come away with the result we needed to move on, and I fully expect us to play up to the level of our next opponent," said Revak.