Huskies come alive in 2nd half but tie with Maine South
By Gary Larsen

 

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Some days, you just have to tip your hat to the girl playing between the pipes.

“Please make sure to credit their goalkeeper,” Hersey coach Brad Abel said after a 1-1 tie against Maine South. “She was phenomenal today.”

If her play on Saturday was typical of the way she plays in net, it won’t take the Illinois high school soccer community long to take notice of Maine South sophomore goalkeeper Emily O’Grady. 

With a non-conference tilt in Park Ridge tied 1-1 at halftime, O’Grady kept it that way with save after pivotal save against a Hersey attack that put 40 minutes of pressure on her.

Sure, the Huskies (4-2-2) sent a few shots wide that they’d like to have back, but they know an exceptional performance in net when they see one.

“We had our chances and didn’t finish,” Hersey midfielder Megan Boyle said. “But she made some good saves.”

Maine South had more of the ball throughout the game’s first half, spending time on Hersey’s side of the midfield stripe but struggling to find dangerous space in the final third against the Huskies’ backline of Olivia Stasiuk, Kayla Knauss, Emily Moody, and Sara Magnuson, and keeper Morgan Harris.

Hersey went up 1-0 when Lauren Gierman drove into the penalty area with a defender at her side and sent a shot inside the far post at 12 minutes, Maine South tied the game on a penalty kick from Allison Curry at 17 minutes, and the day’s scoring was over.

Maine South possessed on Hersey’s half for much of the first half but were rarely allowed a decent look at the goal.

“The back line stayed compact, didn’t panic, and when we can limit the number of shots like that, it bodes well for us,” Abel said.

Halftime for Hersey was spent discussing the adjustments that were needed for the Huskies to get off their defensive heels and start moving forward.

“We were getting frustrated in the first half,” Boyle said. “They brought their forwards into the midfield so we had to kind of figure that out. Once we pressed high and let the defense pick up the forwards, we had a lot more space.

“We came out flat and weren’t communicating between the midfield and the back. We figured it out at halftime but we need to come out stronger than that.”

With Boyle and Nicole Pietro asserting themselves in the middle of the park and outside mids Kaitlyn Smetana, Nicole Gierman, and Meg Cerniglia making strong runs up the touchlines, Hersey’s attack found itself in the second half.

And with strikers Lauren Gierman and Casey Weyhrich getting more balls to their feet, the hunt was on for a second goal.

“They definitely had the better of the run of play in the first half, and we had to adjust,” Abel said. “We made those adjustments and we got a little bit more aggressive, and the tide changed.”

Smetana streaked up the right side and fired hard at the near post at 43 minutes, but O’Grady was there. At 49 minutes, Lauren Gierman centered a pass from deep on the left side to Boyle, who squared a pass to Pietro, but her shot flew just wide from 12 yards out.

O’Grady made a diving save on a Weyhrich shot at the post at 56 minutes, saved another Weyhrich strike soon thereafter, and stopped a pair of Lauren Gierman shots at 61 and 65 minutes.

Maine South’s keeper had established a pattern that haunted Hersey to the final buzzer.

“She’s one of those girls who are just driven,” Crawford said of O’Grady. “She goes to camps and she wants to play in college. We only have six players returning so we’re not good yet but we’ll be better because Emily is back there.”

Pietro fired at the near post at 67 minutes but a diving O’Grady sent the ball back out to Boyle, whose follow-up shot from 18 yards out went over the crossbar. Boyle charged the post in pursuit of a Weyhrich feed at 77 minutes but again went just high of net.

O’Grady stuffed one final quality chance when Lauren Gierman broke in alone on her at 78 minutes.

Of course, the bright side of numerous missed opportunities is that your side is creating good scoring chances.

“We started to integrate out outsides a little bit more and we found more play in the middle between Boyle and Pietro,” Abel said. “Once we started to find them it started to open up more space on the field and allowed us to do more.”

Hersey went into Saturday’s game on the heels of a 2-0 win over Huntley on March 27, and a 2-1 overtime loss to high-powered MSL rival Schaumburg on March 23.

“The Schaumburg game was a great game for us, even though we didn’t get the result,” Boyle said. “We know we can play with them, and they’re one of the top teams in the state. They’re physical and they’re skilled, and they have speed up top.”

Lauren Gierman scored the game’s lone goal vs. Schaumburg, while Pietro and Weyhrich tallied in the win over Huntley.

“I don’t see Schaumburg losing many games,” Abel said. “They’re the real deal, a big, strong team. But we stepped it up in the second half and began pressing a little bit more, and challenged more of those fifty-fifty balls.”