Lancers put 3 on the board vs. Glenbard South
By Gary Larsen

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Every now and then, the often thankless job a player on the outside does provides a payoff.

She spent the day racing up and down the right side of the field on Thursday, and Lake Park junior Rachel Garippo scored what ultimately stood up as a game-winning goal, in a 3-1 Lancers win over Glenbard South.

“She is a tremendously hard worker and she’ll run all day for you,” Lancers coach Chris Fruehling said. “She doesn’t know anything less than a hundred percent.

“I made an adjustment for this game. We had her on the outside in back but she creates offensively for us so we moved her up. She certainly helped me out today.”

Ruth Garippo did the sisterly thing and moved to the backline for Lake Park, and she and the girls in back didn’t allow Glenbard South a single goal in the run of play in front of keeper Rebecca Thorne, who made a few nice saves at the posts and only gave up a PK on the day..

The Lancers outside defenders also supported an offensive push for a team still adjusting to mass absences due to a spate of season-ending injuries.

“We’re working on the defense coming up wide and they did an awesome job with that today,” midfield captain Bridget Lachowiez said. “Our outside runs are getting better -- going outside-inside-outside, and switching the field, and knowing when you need to make your runs.”

Lake Park grabbed a 1-0 lead 30 minutes into play when Ruth Garippo pushed up from her spot as an outside defender and buried a shot to the upper ninety. The Lancers’ Jillian Kent nearly reached a cross sent to the far post from the right side before halftime, but the 1-0 lead stood up to the intermission.

The Lancers took a 2-0 lead at 42 minutes on a nice play at each end of the goal. Ruffolo converged on a ball at the left edge of the penalty area with South’s keeper, who made the initial save. Ruffolo stayed with the play and served a ball across the 18 where Rachel Garippo charged on and buried it her chance.

“I was trying to put the first one on goal,” Ruffolo said. “She stopped it so when the ball came back to me, I knew I had to cross it.”

Glenbard South cut the Lancers’ lead to 2-1 on a penalty kick at 66 minutes and nearly tied the game when a good chance rolled just wide of the post thereafter. Ruffolo sealed the deal at 75 minutes with a goal from distance, and Lake Park had its second win of the season sewn up.

The freshman Ruffolo knows she’ll need to embrace the idea of putting balls on net as a frontrunner this season.

“I tend to (hesitate),” Ruffolo. “I’m always the one who tends to pass it off instead of shooting because I feel like somebody else might have a better shot than I do, and I don’t want to take the shot away from someone else.”

Fruehling was happy to see Ruffolo finalize the win with a third goal.

“They deserve it,” Fruehling said. “They’re working hard each day and they’re learning each game, so being able to put a few in the back of the net means a lot to them and their confidence.

“What I saw today was that we had a little bit more composure. We were able to connect and build a little bit more, and that allowed us offensively to get it to the corner with a little more regularity.”

|Senior captain Briana Small was Miss Versatility against Glenbard South. Small played four different positions on the day – center mid, forward, midfield stopper, and defender.  Lachowiez also put in a good day’s work, steering the offense from midfield.

“Bridget Lachowiez had the pass that led to the assist today,” Fruehling said. “She’s the one in the center of the field playing with composure and getting it to the alleys to the outside mids. We worked on that the other day and it was great to see her apply it today.”

Thursday’s win ended the host Lancers’ play in this year’s Earlybird Invitational tournament, which Buffalo Grove won by virtue of Thursday’s 4-2 win over Batavia.

The Lancers hit the road to play highly-touted Metea Valley Tuesday before hosting Wheeling in a game next Saturday, and Fruehling hopes his girls are prepared to continue persevering as they adjust playing without key injured players, though senior midfielder Kelsey McNeela may soon return to the fold.

“The time of adversity is the time to keep fighting, and keep fighting,” Fruehling said. “To come out with three goals and a win today is a testament to how hard they’re working.”