Wolves open on the road at Downers Grove South
By Darryl Mellema

 

In 160 minutes of girls’ soccer this season, Downers Grove South has scored 9 times. What's more impressive is that six different players have found the net. Balance is clearly one of the keys to the team's success.

“It's good to see that different girls are scoring,” Downers Grove South senior Flo Beshiri said after her team's 4-1 victory over Oswego East. “The younger girls and the veteran players, everyone's getting a chance, so that's nice.”

Beshiri was one of three different scorers in Saturday's win over the Wolves. So far this season, Downers Grove South has scored 9 goals and has had 6 players find the scoresheet.

“We don't have that one kid who's going to score 25 girls,” Downers Grove South coach Barry Jacobson said. “We have a lot of nice players. We're playing a good team game right now.”

For the dominance shown by the final score and which was demonstrated on the Mustangs' artificial surface during the match, the opening goal was slightly bizarre. With a throw-in on the right sideline needing to be taken a little more quickly, the referee blew his whistle. At that same time, the Mustangs were sending that ball back onto the field. But having heard the whistle, many players on the field stopped playing. Ludwig was not one of those, and the senior moved into the penalty area and scored.

“We look to everyone to score,” Ludwig said. “We don't just look to our forwards. Anyone on our team can rip the back of the net. Our midfielders and even our defenders can score.”

That goal came with 13 minutes left in the first half and came at a time when Oswego East was playing its best soccer, especially with freshman Miranda Lambert and sophomore Kasey Bruns combining in the middle of the field.

“It was a very unfortunate turnaround, not knowing exactly what the call was,” Oswego East coach Lauren Anderson said. “But what I told the girls was that we've got to learn from that. You don't stop until you know 100 percent, even if you make (the referee) blow the whistle twice. Just keep playing until the very end.”

Knocked back a bit by Ludwig's opening goal, Oswego East was sent reeling 2 minutes later when Ludwig turned and hit a blistering shot from the top of the penalty area to give the Mustangs a 2-0 halftime lead. Ludwig is the early team leading goalscorer with three goals in the two contests.

“I just look to put the ball in the back of the net and hit it,” Ludwig said.

Not only are there a number of Downers Grove South players who are capable of scoring, but they have a number of ways in which they can score. Set pieces, open play, broken plays – all are potential scoring opportunities for the Mustangs.

As an example of that variety, the Mustangs' third goal came on a rebound following a Beshiri corner kick. An initial shot hit the crossbar, but the rebound eventually came to Beshiri on the right side of the penalty area. The senior sent a rifled shot in at the left post for her second goal of the young season.

“I think we worked well together and everyone was giving 110 percent for each other,” Beshiri said. “People were playing for each other, so that worked out well.”

Beshiri's goal came with 16 minutes left and Janowiak completed the hosts' scoring with a long shot with 9 minutes to play.

“We're getting everybody involved,” Jacobson said. “That's what we're hoping for. We got some good play from our mids today. Right now, the possession is there and the tactics are there and we hope we're just going to keep getting better.”

Megan Moran scored Oswego East's goal on a free kick with 3:16 to play.

Oswego East's best move of the match came 9 minutes before the opening goal. In a sweeping play, the Wolves worked the ball from left to right. Starting with Carli Schlaker, who passed to the center of the field to Lambert, who found Holly Schwarz on the right wing. Schwarz sent the ball into the middle again, where Brittany Brewer was unmarked. The ball jumped from Brewer's foot and hit her hand, ending the attack.

“They were knocking the ball around,” Anderson said. “They were composed. (Lambert), I was so impressed with her play in her first varsity game.”

Anderson praised goalie Alysen Newton, a junior playing her first soccer match.

“Stepping into her first soccer game against a team like Downers Grove South – she did very well for herself,” Anderson said.

Oswego East has only one senior – Schlaker, so the current team figures to be together for some time to come.

“We've definitely come a long way,” Schlaker said. “Honestly. I think this is going to be a good season for us, especially if we work for it. I think we're all proud of the way we worked together in our first game of the season.”

Lambert is one of five freshmen on the Oswego East varsity roster and she and Jodie Makara featured in the starting lineup.

“We've been training really hard every single day and we've come a long way,” Lambert said. “The older players have all really helped us. I was pretty nervous at the beginning of today's match. But we've been training and I was confident that we'd do well.”