Lancers put 4 on the board vs. Wheeling
By Gary Larsen

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After Lake Park’s Kelsey McNeela scored her second goal on Saturday, a good-natured shout of “where have you been all year?!” came booming down from the home crowd.

“That might have been my dad,” McNeela said.

Playing in her first game this year since recovering from a knee injury, the senior McNeela raced up and down the right side of the field, a brace engulfing her right knee, in quality spot action for coach Chris Fruehling.

McNeela scored twice in a 4-2 win over visiting Wheeling and the Lancers got goals from Nicole Moore and Jillian Kent in the victory, in opening-round play of this year’s Rolling Meadows/Lake Park Soccer Invitational.

“I’m so happy for her,” Fruehling said of McNeela. “She’s a gamer and she loves to compete. Not being able to play for a while had to be frustrating for her, so to finally get out there and play was great to see. She’s at a point of (pain) tolerance, which she’s fighting through and which I love her to death for.”

McNeela was inserted into the game roughly 15 minutes into each half, and she made her time on the field count, first in the 56th minute when she gathered a cross at the far post from Rachel Garippo and blistered a shot to the back netting from a tough angle.

The Lancers went up 4-0 when Jillian Kent sent a corner kick to the goalmouth, where McNeela buried a head shot at 68 minutes. She left the game at 70 minutes to a round of applause from the home crowd.

“When you’re sitting out you get a different view of the game. You can see things from the side and learn, and help everyone else learn too,” McNeela said. “It’s rough to sit out but coming back feels even better. It feels good to be back and everyone’s support has been phenomenal.”

Lake Park (3-4-1) came out with intensity and played well to feet throughout the first half. Senior Nicole Moore fired a free kick that Wheeling’s keeper tipped over the crossbar at 19 minutes, and Moore sent another chance wide one minute later.

Moore may have felt snakebit at 23 minutes when she sent a third good scoring chance on net only to see it saved, but she finally kicked in the door at the 35-minute mark when she scored from distance for the game’s first goal.

“We’ve been working a lot on our build and our finishing in the final third, and I was happy to see us get a few opportunities,” Fruehling said. “I was really happy with what we were able to create today.”

The Lancers went up 2-0 when Lexi Ruffolo centered a ball from deep on the left side to the near post, where Kent buried it just three minutes into the second half. McNeela’s two goals followed to put the Lancers firmly in the driver’s seat.

“We kept winning fifty-fifty balls, which was a weakness in our past couple of games, and today we came in and won them,” Rachel Garippo said. “That kept us positive, to keep the ball in their half instead of letting it get into ours.”

McNeela, Rachel Garippo, and Ruth Garippo carried much of the work rate on the outside for the Lancers on Saturday. Nobody likely starts out in the sport with the intention of being an outside midfielder, but when duty calls…

“I was in the middle but when I came (to Lake Park) but they said ‘you’re going on the outside’,” McNeela said.  “And if you want to play, you do whatever you’re asked to do.”

“You know you have to get back and you know outside mid is a hard position going into it,” said Garippo, who was a marking back before getting to Lake Park. “You can’t ever think it’s going to be easy because you know you have to be able to run up and attack, and also come back and help out on defense. I was always a marking back but when I came here they saw I could run and I had good stamina, outside was the place I had to go.”

With senior Briana Small anchoring the back line at Lake Park and senior Ariane Monaco getting it done as a defensive stopper, a pair of freshmen in Casey Harris and Samantha Sommerio battled well on the outside for Fruehling throughout Saturday’s contest. Sophomore Rebecca Thorne was in net for the Lancers’ third win of the season.

“We used Casey as a sweeper when we needed to push (Small) in the middle a little bit,” Fruehling said. “I also told her we’d be looking at her on the outside as a marking back. Once freshmen make that adjustment to the speed and physicality of varsity play, they have so much potential to keep growing and gain confidence.”

McNeela also applauded the day’s work put in by teammates Moore and Bridget Lachowiez. “Our center mids do a really good job of distributing the ball to us,” McNeela said. “We have good chemistry with everyone there.”

Wheeling disrupted the Lancers’ shutout when Alexa Laureano bolted in up the left side and scored at 75 minutes. The Wildcats struck again at 77 minutes on a Cindy Castillo penalty kick after a tripping call.

“When we went up 4-0 I thought we lost our sharpness and aggressiveness, and that’s one area we need to grow is to finish off games,” Fruehling said. “The momentum shifted on their first goal and then they got hungry and they put another in the back of the net.

“But I liked the way we came out in the first half. In the past we’ve come out on our heels a little bit but we wanted to come out and set the tone, and I was excited to see us carry what we practiced the other day into the game today. It can only get better from here.”