DGS stuck in Naperville rut
Mustangs fall 2-0 to Sandburg
By Steve Nemeth
NAPERVILLE -- For Downers Grove South, the 19th annual Naperville Invitational has been like a corral.
There have been bursts of energy, but the penned-up Mustangs long to run wild as they did when they got off to a 9-1-0 start to the season. Unlike in a pair of group play losses, Downers Grove South kept pace with Sandburg in Thursday’s consolation pool game during a scoreless first half.
Unfortunately the second half went south for Downers Grove South and Sandburg galloped off with a 2-0 win. Downers Grove South huddled for some time in a post-game quest to find answers. They had more time for soul-searching while waiting for their bus for their return home.
“We need to regain our identity,” coach Chris Hernandez admitted. “Our true style has eluded us, and it’s as if we’ve lost our confidence.
“For us to contain them through the first half was a positive. Not getting a goal on so many opportunities, maybe it did become a mental thing. But the goals we gave up,” Hernandez said pausing as if searching for words after having described the six goals yielded in group play matches as uncharacteristic. “We had a bad giveaway in the middle, and the second one we just didn’t defend a set-piece.”
Sandburg capitalized on that first miscue just 1:24 into the second half as Kylie Hase’s cross enabled Sara DeWolf to tuck a 10-yard shot inside the right post.
Taking the lead was the wind under the Eagles’ offensive wings as chances became more frequent and more dangerous. In the meantime, Sydney Rudny stood out in Sandburg’s efforts to keep the Mustangs penned in and thereby earned Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match recognition.
“South had some really fast forwards and Sydney was the main reason we were able to shut them down,” Sandburg coach Katie O’Connell insisted. “Keeping them from scoring required hustle and focus. In addition as a center back, she works hard on getting the ball and starting our offense.”
After avoiding a loss in its first 10 matches of the season, Sandburg (11-1-2) fell to Geneva and dropped into consolation play. With this latest triumph, the Eagles newest win streak stands at three.
Sandburg – ranked 11th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 – has a noon showdown with Boylan, an identical 2-0 Thursday night winner against Fremd.
After a 4-0 conference win over Leyden Tuesday, the Mustangs appeared eager for an encore as Autumn Rasmussen and Alexa Dimovski challenged Sandburg early in the contest. However, it was a Kailee O’Connor header 14 minutes in that required Sandburg goalie Emily Furmanek to make a diving save. With nine minutes to go before intermission, Dimovski had a free kick that continued to rise over instead of dipping under the crossbar.
Sandburg threatened with just under seven minutes when Mustang keeper Paige Patera slipped while making a stop. Teammate Sydney Clements booted the ball clear. A minute later, Rudny’s cannon-style kicks required Patera to simply clear the ball.
Just 1:27 prior to the halftime whistle, Sandburg thought it had a lead when a Hase blast caromed off the underside of the crossbar, however, officials believed the ball didn’t cross the goal line.
After the break there was no doubt when DeWolf used Hase’s set-up.
“Seeing Kylie dribbling in from the wing, the middle opened up for me, and it was a perfect ball from her. I saw the goalie rushing out, and I aimed inside the right post,” DeWolf said in regard to her seventh goal.
The Eagles followed with Hase narrowly missing the upper right corner, a header just outside the right post and a Paige Pappanastos laser from the left requiring a big save. While Ashley Leitter had a header bounce off the crossbar, that wasn’t the case with 18:28 left to be played. Lauren Wille assist found Hase for a 12-yard header that also hit the crossbar, but angled down and in.
“Seeing Lauren on the outside getting ready to launch a cross I worked to get in front of a defender and was able to put it home,” Hase said. “It’s my second header and every goal feels great.”
Downers Grove South worked hard for the equalizers. Natalie Pinto had a direct free-kick from the top of the box with 15:13 still to play, but the shot sailed high, and a follow-up rocket by Dimovski was stopped by a keeper dive to the right.
“Emma had a huge stop to keep us ahead 2-0. I’m happiest about the way we moved the ball,” O’Connell said. “We came out strong in the second half, won balls in
midfield, made good crosses and got the win.”
South junior Sarah Casey was ready to analyze the Mustangs’ troubles.
“Compared to how we played earlier, we’ve lost some focus in practices as well as in games,” Casey explained. “You can’t just talk about communication, it’s what you need to do throughout the field. Last week the juniors had ACT exams, the seniors had prom, which may have hurt our focus.
“But the thing to remember is that there is plenty of season to come. It might feel easy to put your head down, but now is the time to be a team, realize we all want to fix things, and look forward.”
Hernandez is confident his squad can find the solution.
“We have some capable senior leaders and now is the time for that senior leadership to get us through these frustrations and get us back on track,” he said.
No. 15 Downers Grove South (10-4-0) will get that chance in a 2 p.m. Saturday meeting with Fremd.
Starting line-ups
Sandburg
GK: Emma Furmanek
D: Brittany Stefanos
D: Sydney Rudney
D: Katie Wille
D: Lauren Wille
MF: Christine Szymanski
MF: Kylie Hase
MF: Sam Moran
MF: Isabella Stola
F: Sara DeWolf
F: Paige Pappanastos
Downers Grove South
GK: Payton Froats
D: Hannah Rossi
D: Sydney Clements
D: Marcela Calderon
D: Sara Foernssler
MF: Kailee O’Connor
MF: Natalia Pinto
MF: Sarah Casey
MF: Megan Albers
F: Autumn Rasmussen
F: Alexa DImovski
MVP of the Match: Sydney Rudney, D, Sandburg
Referees: Tony Martinez, Dean Palmateer, Jose Gonzalez
Game summary
Sandburg 2, Downers Grove South 0
Sandburg 0 3 --- 2
Downers Grove South 0 0 --- 0
Scoring
CS --- DeWolf 10-yarder inside right post off a cross (Hase assist), 42nd minute
CA --- Hase 12-yard header caroms down and in off crossbar (L. Wille assist), 62nd minute
Shots: S 6 -- 9 --- 15 / DGS 5 -- 5 --- 10
Shots on goal: S 3 – 4 ---- 7 / DGS 1 – 2 ---- 3
Saves (foalie): S (Furmanek) 1 – 2 ---- 3 / DGS (Patera) 2 -- 3 --- 5
Mustangs fall 2-0 to Sandburg
By Steve Nemeth
NAPERVILLE -- For Downers Grove South, the 19th annual Naperville Invitational has been like a corral.
There have been bursts of energy, but the penned-up Mustangs long to run wild as they did when they got off to a 9-1-0 start to the season. Unlike in a pair of group play losses, Downers Grove South kept pace with Sandburg in Thursday’s consolation pool game during a scoreless first half.
Unfortunately the second half went south for Downers Grove South and Sandburg galloped off with a 2-0 win. Downers Grove South huddled for some time in a post-game quest to find answers. They had more time for soul-searching while waiting for their bus for their return home.
“We need to regain our identity,” coach Chris Hernandez admitted. “Our true style has eluded us, and it’s as if we’ve lost our confidence.
“For us to contain them through the first half was a positive. Not getting a goal on so many opportunities, maybe it did become a mental thing. But the goals we gave up,” Hernandez said pausing as if searching for words after having described the six goals yielded in group play matches as uncharacteristic. “We had a bad giveaway in the middle, and the second one we just didn’t defend a set-piece.”
Sandburg capitalized on that first miscue just 1:24 into the second half as Kylie Hase’s cross enabled Sara DeWolf to tuck a 10-yard shot inside the right post.
Taking the lead was the wind under the Eagles’ offensive wings as chances became more frequent and more dangerous. In the meantime, Sydney Rudny stood out in Sandburg’s efforts to keep the Mustangs penned in and thereby earned Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match recognition.
“South had some really fast forwards and Sydney was the main reason we were able to shut them down,” Sandburg coach Katie O’Connell insisted. “Keeping them from scoring required hustle and focus. In addition as a center back, she works hard on getting the ball and starting our offense.”
After avoiding a loss in its first 10 matches of the season, Sandburg (11-1-2) fell to Geneva and dropped into consolation play. With this latest triumph, the Eagles newest win streak stands at three.
Sandburg – ranked 11th in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 – has a noon showdown with Boylan, an identical 2-0 Thursday night winner against Fremd.
After a 4-0 conference win over Leyden Tuesday, the Mustangs appeared eager for an encore as Autumn Rasmussen and Alexa Dimovski challenged Sandburg early in the contest. However, it was a Kailee O’Connor header 14 minutes in that required Sandburg goalie Emily Furmanek to make a diving save. With nine minutes to go before intermission, Dimovski had a free kick that continued to rise over instead of dipping under the crossbar.
Sandburg threatened with just under seven minutes when Mustang keeper Paige Patera slipped while making a stop. Teammate Sydney Clements booted the ball clear. A minute later, Rudny’s cannon-style kicks required Patera to simply clear the ball.
Just 1:27 prior to the halftime whistle, Sandburg thought it had a lead when a Hase blast caromed off the underside of the crossbar, however, officials believed the ball didn’t cross the goal line.
After the break there was no doubt when DeWolf used Hase’s set-up.
“Seeing Kylie dribbling in from the wing, the middle opened up for me, and it was a perfect ball from her. I saw the goalie rushing out, and I aimed inside the right post,” DeWolf said in regard to her seventh goal.
The Eagles followed with Hase narrowly missing the upper right corner, a header just outside the right post and a Paige Pappanastos laser from the left requiring a big save. While Ashley Leitter had a header bounce off the crossbar, that wasn’t the case with 18:28 left to be played. Lauren Wille assist found Hase for a 12-yard header that also hit the crossbar, but angled down and in.
“Seeing Lauren on the outside getting ready to launch a cross I worked to get in front of a defender and was able to put it home,” Hase said. “It’s my second header and every goal feels great.”
Downers Grove South worked hard for the equalizers. Natalie Pinto had a direct free-kick from the top of the box with 15:13 still to play, but the shot sailed high, and a follow-up rocket by Dimovski was stopped by a keeper dive to the right.
“Emma had a huge stop to keep us ahead 2-0. I’m happiest about the way we moved the ball,” O’Connell said. “We came out strong in the second half, won balls in
midfield, made good crosses and got the win.”
South junior Sarah Casey was ready to analyze the Mustangs’ troubles.
“Compared to how we played earlier, we’ve lost some focus in practices as well as in games,” Casey explained. “You can’t just talk about communication, it’s what you need to do throughout the field. Last week the juniors had ACT exams, the seniors had prom, which may have hurt our focus.
“But the thing to remember is that there is plenty of season to come. It might feel easy to put your head down, but now is the time to be a team, realize we all want to fix things, and look forward.”
Hernandez is confident his squad can find the solution.
“We have some capable senior leaders and now is the time for that senior leadership to get us through these frustrations and get us back on track,” he said.
No. 15 Downers Grove South (10-4-0) will get that chance in a 2 p.m. Saturday meeting with Fremd.
Starting line-ups
Sandburg
GK: Emma Furmanek
D: Brittany Stefanos
D: Sydney Rudney
D: Katie Wille
D: Lauren Wille
MF: Christine Szymanski
MF: Kylie Hase
MF: Sam Moran
MF: Isabella Stola
F: Sara DeWolf
F: Paige Pappanastos
Downers Grove South
GK: Payton Froats
D: Hannah Rossi
D: Sydney Clements
D: Marcela Calderon
D: Sara Foernssler
MF: Kailee O’Connor
MF: Natalia Pinto
MF: Sarah Casey
MF: Megan Albers
F: Autumn Rasmussen
F: Alexa DImovski
MVP of the Match: Sydney Rudney, D, Sandburg
Referees: Tony Martinez, Dean Palmateer, Jose Gonzalez
Game summary
Sandburg 2, Downers Grove South 0
Sandburg 0 3 --- 2
Downers Grove South 0 0 --- 0
Scoring
CS --- DeWolf 10-yarder inside right post off a cross (Hase assist), 42nd minute
CA --- Hase 12-yard header caroms down and in off crossbar (L. Wille assist), 62nd minute
Shots: S 6 -- 9 --- 15 / DGS 5 -- 5 --- 10
Shots on goal: S 3 – 4 ---- 7 / DGS 1 – 2 ---- 3
Saves (foalie): S (Furmanek) 1 – 2 ---- 3 / DGS (Patera) 2 -- 3 --- 5