East meets West for Glenbard pride
By Steve Nemeth
Perhaps it’s not a cold war, but the battle between host Glenbard East and Glenbard West will feature a lot of intensity at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“Facing Glenbard West is very special to our team because it is one of our Glenbard schools and every time we play them, it’s a hard-fought game and great competition,” senior Brittany Paganucci explained.
Glenbard East’s Rams (14-3-0) are aiming for a sixth-straight win while Glenbard West’s Hilltoppers (7-5-0) are trying to get back-to-back wins for only the second time against a rugged schedule.
The visitors are fresh from a 2-0 triumph over Glenbard North. That provided some comfort after consecutive one-goal losses – an all-too familiar outcome for West – to two high-profile foes. A hectic week for the Hilltoppers – ranked among the teams to watch in the most recent Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 Poll --- began with a 1-0 loss in Sunday’s ATI Bracket championship of the PepsiCo Showdown against no. 16 Wheaton Warrenville South. Then came a conference defeat Tuesday to no. 10 Lyons.
Beating Glenbard North on Thursday followed by success against no. 18-ranked Glenbard East would at least give the Hilltoppers a split for a four-matches-in-seven-days span that would test any program.
Plus there’s the bragging rights aspect for Glenbard West which began the year with a 7-0 thumping of Glenbard South. That triumph is indicative of a feast-or-famine roller coaster for the Hilltoppers. All but one of their victories is via a shutout, which speaks volumes for goalie Bailey Wallace, and defender Teagan Ryan, who earned IHSSCA Honorable Mention All-Section 2 honors last year as a freshman.
Conversely, all five losses are by a single goal: 2-1 vs. Wheaton North and 1-0 against Benet and Bartlett to go with the aforementioned setbacks.
“They are one of our rival teams, and we always look forward to playing them because we all love a good competitive team,” East’s Amanda Chlebek added. “It is always a great match, because we are alike in our style of play.”
Glenbard West also caps an equally busy week for the Rams. East solidified its lead in the Upstate Eight Valley Division beating Bartlett last Saturday and followed with a 1-0 road win at West Chicago.
Then came Thursday’s 3-0 Senior Night blanking of Willowbrook highlighted by Paganucci’s hat trick. Those three goals enabled her to break the school career record with 66, and it's unlikely she's done yet. The senior – an IHSSCA All-Section 3 selection last year --- has scored 20 goals for the second-consecutive season.
Record-breaking has become a trademark of the current campaign for Glenbard East. As a team, the Rams are three wins from matching the school standard for victories. Senior goalie Sierra Dana is now simply raising the records she holds for single-season shutouts (12) and career clean sheets (27).
Preparation is a key for Glenbard East.
“We typically have three games a week and face a lot of competitive teams, We basically prepare by working on technical things in practice,” Chlebek noted. “Plus coach (Kent) Overby and (assistant Jeff) Sabol always tell us to ice if we are banged up. Plus we check up on each other to make sure we are rested and ready for the next game.”
“We just try to keep improving on what we’ve been doing and take it one game at a time,” sophomore Katie Hansen added. “We try to look at each game individually and focus on what we need to do that day to be successful.”
“Preparing for a stretch of games is all about taking care of your body,” Paganucci said. “Many of us have been banged up, but it is all about how we recover. These games against a variety of opponents gets us ready for the postseason. We try to learn something from each opponent and add that to the way we play.”
Both Hansen and Chlebek echoed that thought.
“We keep working on our skills as a team and one way to do that is facing people who will play the same style as someone we’ll face in the postseason,” Hansen said.
“The number of matches and variety of opponents helps us for the postseason because we never know what kind of team we’ll be matched with for our first game of regionals,” Chlebek said. “We have played a couple of very tough teams and can expect more to come.”
Overby appreciates the rivalry and sees an extra value to facing the Hilltoppers.
“We used to play a lot more often until being in different conferences and assigned to different sectionals,” Overby said. “But that now helps in that we get some measure of a few teams in our sectional because they face West.”
By Steve Nemeth
Perhaps it’s not a cold war, but the battle between host Glenbard East and Glenbard West will feature a lot of intensity at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“Facing Glenbard West is very special to our team because it is one of our Glenbard schools and every time we play them, it’s a hard-fought game and great competition,” senior Brittany Paganucci explained.
Glenbard East’s Rams (14-3-0) are aiming for a sixth-straight win while Glenbard West’s Hilltoppers (7-5-0) are trying to get back-to-back wins for only the second time against a rugged schedule.
The visitors are fresh from a 2-0 triumph over Glenbard North. That provided some comfort after consecutive one-goal losses – an all-too familiar outcome for West – to two high-profile foes. A hectic week for the Hilltoppers – ranked among the teams to watch in the most recent Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 Poll --- began with a 1-0 loss in Sunday’s ATI Bracket championship of the PepsiCo Showdown against no. 16 Wheaton Warrenville South. Then came a conference defeat Tuesday to no. 10 Lyons.
Beating Glenbard North on Thursday followed by success against no. 18-ranked Glenbard East would at least give the Hilltoppers a split for a four-matches-in-seven-days span that would test any program.
Plus there’s the bragging rights aspect for Glenbard West which began the year with a 7-0 thumping of Glenbard South. That triumph is indicative of a feast-or-famine roller coaster for the Hilltoppers. All but one of their victories is via a shutout, which speaks volumes for goalie Bailey Wallace, and defender Teagan Ryan, who earned IHSSCA Honorable Mention All-Section 2 honors last year as a freshman.
Conversely, all five losses are by a single goal: 2-1 vs. Wheaton North and 1-0 against Benet and Bartlett to go with the aforementioned setbacks.
“They are one of our rival teams, and we always look forward to playing them because we all love a good competitive team,” East’s Amanda Chlebek added. “It is always a great match, because we are alike in our style of play.”
Glenbard West also caps an equally busy week for the Rams. East solidified its lead in the Upstate Eight Valley Division beating Bartlett last Saturday and followed with a 1-0 road win at West Chicago.
Then came Thursday’s 3-0 Senior Night blanking of Willowbrook highlighted by Paganucci’s hat trick. Those three goals enabled her to break the school career record with 66, and it's unlikely she's done yet. The senior – an IHSSCA All-Section 3 selection last year --- has scored 20 goals for the second-consecutive season.
Record-breaking has become a trademark of the current campaign for Glenbard East. As a team, the Rams are three wins from matching the school standard for victories. Senior goalie Sierra Dana is now simply raising the records she holds for single-season shutouts (12) and career clean sheets (27).
Preparation is a key for Glenbard East.
“We typically have three games a week and face a lot of competitive teams, We basically prepare by working on technical things in practice,” Chlebek noted. “Plus coach (Kent) Overby and (assistant Jeff) Sabol always tell us to ice if we are banged up. Plus we check up on each other to make sure we are rested and ready for the next game.”
“We just try to keep improving on what we’ve been doing and take it one game at a time,” sophomore Katie Hansen added. “We try to look at each game individually and focus on what we need to do that day to be successful.”
“Preparing for a stretch of games is all about taking care of your body,” Paganucci said. “Many of us have been banged up, but it is all about how we recover. These games against a variety of opponents gets us ready for the postseason. We try to learn something from each opponent and add that to the way we play.”
Both Hansen and Chlebek echoed that thought.
“We keep working on our skills as a team and one way to do that is facing people who will play the same style as someone we’ll face in the postseason,” Hansen said.
“The number of matches and variety of opponents helps us for the postseason because we never know what kind of team we’ll be matched with for our first game of regionals,” Chlebek said. “We have played a couple of very tough teams and can expect more to come.”
Overby appreciates the rivalry and sees an extra value to facing the Hilltoppers.
“We used to play a lot more often until being in different conferences and assigned to different sectionals,” Overby said. “But that now helps in that we get some measure of a few teams in our sectional because they face West.”