Buffalo Grove's 3 late goals do in Lancers
By Mike Garofola

 

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Living under the “if we didn't have bad luck we'd have no luck at all” mantra, the Lake Park soccer club fittingly opened its own tournament under dreary, gray skies Saturday morning as the annual Early Bird Invite got under way.

Already without four standouts due to ACL injuries, the tourney hosts welcomed a much healthier club in Buffalo Grove in the breakfast special at soggy Krupke Field.

The Lancers gave a young and highly-skilled side from BG all it could handle for 70 minutes, until the floodgates opened when it conceded three goals within four minutes in an eventual 5-0 defeat.

"Yes it's kind of tough right now, we've got four players injured and gone, and there's a lot of new and young players in our lineup right now,” said Lancers senior Briana Small, who  made it clear from her response her mates are going to be ready for 80 minutes of soccer from here on out.

“Coach (Chris Fruehling) is trying to piece together a lineup, and putting some players in places very new to them, but everyone is playing hard and giving it everything they have right now.”

"There's a lot of missing pieces in the puzzle right now, but what a terrific group of players I have,” Fruehling said. “They just don't give up, and they have so much heart, and that's what you have to like about this team.

"Nobody here is looking for any sympathy from anyone. Injuries happen. But again, this is a team that enjoys each other and likes to play as a team, so we'll get things sorted out here in the next couple of games, and I really believe we'll be just fine once we do."

Unfortunately for the Lancers (1-2-0) their tourney opener happened to be against a side which currently is riding high in the early stages of the season, as the Bison came into action a perfect 4-0-0 after back-to-back victories over division rivals Prospect and Rolling Meadows to open play in the MSL at 2-0-0.

"We feel like we have the technical skill to compete in a strong soccer conference like the MSL, and plenty of depth, but we also know we'll have to be ready to play every time we go out, both physically and mentally because there are not any weak opponents in our league," said Bison head coach Pat Dudle, who has an incredibly young group on his roster, witnessed by the 5 sophomores, and 3 freshmen in his first-11 on Saturday.

The freshmen MF duo of Kelli Zickert and Jennifer Kovach proved to be major instigators in the center of the park in this match, showing plenty of pace and energy, which at times was a little too much for the Lancers to negotiate.

Fruehling placed youngsters Lexi Ruffolo and Lauren Bolnius together up top after intermission, and asked the freshman-sophomore duo to track back, tackle and defend the Bison midfield, then go forward on the counter.

"I really liked the energy and hard work those two gave us when they were together," began Fruehling.

"They gave us a hundred and ten percent and helped slow (BG) down until the very end. And again, here's a couple of young players who are going to get a lot of work this season, which will help us in the next few years."

As a team, the Lancers did well to clog the middle of the park, while doing its best to win 50-50 balls, and tackle in the first quarter hour to stifle the skilled Bison. With the help of keeper Rebecca Thorne, the tourney hosts kept their opponents off the scoreboard until the 17th minute.

"The score wasn't any reflection of the work that (Thorne) did for us. She earned our coaches award afterwards for player-of-the-match," offered Fruehling, who watched the sophomore stop a well-aimed drive from Colleen Zickert at 14 minutes, and on two others occasions challenge off her line with great confidence and no fear to take would-be shots off the boots of Bison shooters.

The Lancers keeper had no chance on the first goal of the match when Kelli Zickert ran unmarked to redirect Skylar Groth's serve into the 6-yard box.

5 minutes later an alert Casey Harris followed the action correctly, and on a retrieving mission, cleared a sure goal out of the area when Thorne lost her footing on the slippery surface, trying to corral a Shannon Guercio shot on frame.

Fruehling pushed Small into the midfield from her spot along the back as sweeper, with the hope of jump-starting the Lancers attack at 20 minutes, and shortly thereafter, Ruffolo forced Bison keeper Katie Okamoto into a save, and with the help of Jillian Kent, Bolnius, Ruffolo and Small, the Lancers were able to get forward more than they had in the first half of the period.

"Briana is one of those four-year veterans who uses her experience and leadership to her best, and when we asked her to move into the midfield she did it with ease. It helped our attack when we did that in the second half as well," said Fruehling.

The Lancers conceded a late goal to send the visitors into the break with a 2-goal advantage, and kept their opponents at bay after intermission, even though they were dangerous on the attack, and had a couple of quality chances on frame.

But the Bison struck 3 times in lightning quick speed, with Colleen and Kelli Zickert getting into the back of the net at 70 and 72 minutes, before freshmen Elizabeth Chan finished things up 2 minutes later.

"This isn't a team that will give up while we go through this early period of adjustment with so many of our players out with injuries, and although it's going to be hard at times playing without some of our best players, we're going to have be ready to play each time we go out there," Small said.

The Lancers will continue tournament action on Tuesday at 10:00 am against Batavia at Krupke Field.