Grens lose 2-0 at Conant
By Gary Larsen

 

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You can keep her in front of you, not dive in, and hold her up until help arrives but if you lose track of Conant’s Courtney Raetzman even for a second, she can make you pay.

Through 12 minutes of play on Wednesday, Elk Grove did a fine job of severely limiting Raetzman’s touches. That changed when Conant’s Sam Armando took a pass from Leah Celarek and fired it off the crossbar; the shot fell to the turf, and Raetzman pounced on it to give her side what ultimately stood as the game-winner in a 2-0 win over the visiting Grenadiers.

It was Raetzman’s 18th goal of the season.

"She wasn't really finding it much and then it falls off the crossbar, right to her," Conant coach Jason Franco said. "And with her hustle, she's usually going to be right there. “

The Cougars (12-2, 8-1 in MSL play) didn’t finalize things until Armando buried her sixth goal of the season in the game’s 74th minute. But until then, Elk Grove (9-5-1, 4-3-1) stayed one strike away from knotting the score.

The game’s first 40 minutes saw the majority of good scoring chances for both teams. Conant’s Alyssa Altosino sent a long shot in on Grens’ keeper Melissa Solorio three minutes in, while Elk Grove had a few freekicks with potential through seven minutes of play.

Elk Grove’s Sarah Stram busted up the left side at 13 minutes and fired on Conant keeper Haley Anderson, who hit the turf to save it. Anderson came up big at 16 minutes when Elk Grove found senior Kelli Hubly on a breakaway, and the Cougars’ freshman keeper charged well off her line to stop Hubly’s shot from 18 yards out.

Hubly raced up with a ball at her foot again at 28 minutes and fired at the post, but Anderson was there to stop it.

"The key was to get in her way and keep the angles down, so she wouldn't have any opportunity at all," Anderson said. "We really tried to make sure they didn't get any of those over the top and I thought our defense did a great job of dropping, and winning most of those balls out of the air, so that was much less of a threat."

Hubly lamented her side’s chances gone awry on Wednesday. "We need to finish those," Hubly said. "(Anderson) made some good saves but I should have some done different things on a few of those shots.”

Raetzman nearly made it 2-0 just before halftime, cutting a ball back to her left in front of the goal and firing a shot that Grens keeper Melissa Solorio tipped over the crossbar at 36 minutes.

The second half saw Conant establish its possession game with more regularity against a Grens team that saw quality chances disappear.

"We've got to put one away in the first half, and in the second half Conant did a great job of knocking it around," Elk Grove coach Dan Klaus said. "All in all, Conant's best defense in the second half was possessing the ball well."

"Missing (Nikki) Zaino tonight hurts because we lose that athleticism, but I thought it was a good game. In the first half I thought we played well, and Melissa came up with a huge save on Courtney to keep it 1-0. Good game, and now we look at what we're doing and ask if we want to ride it out, or do we want to make some drastic changes, to see if that changes things up. We’ll see.”

Armando’s goal at 74 minutes capped a fine string of passes, culminating in Raetzman laying a ball off to the left side, and Armando burying it near the post. "That was one of our best goals of the year. I think we had like twelve passes before we got that goal," Franco said.

The Conant coach was also pleased with the decisions Anderson made throughout the game.

"She had one legit breakaway save, another half-breakaway that she tipped wide for a corner, and she played well," Franco said. "She held the ball when she had to and didn't make any mistakes, so we got big play out of her tonight. We're very happy with how she played."

Franco also applauded the play of central midfielders Altosino and Christina Rosales, the backline play of Drew Wentzel, Kelsey Foss, Katie Lomas, and Kim Trinco, and liked the way Armando held the ball for his side in the win.

In the process of getting a short roster healthy, Elk Grove put forth another gutsy effort, led by a core group of players who never come off the field.

"We don't sub a lot because we don't have a lot of depth, but it's just what we have to work through," Hubly said. "We have each other and we push each other. We all have wristbands that we write on them, every game, and wear as motivation. We push each other and we fight for each other."

Conant’s win combined with a Barrington loss to Hersey on Wednesday pulled the Cougars even with the Fillies at 8-1 in MSL play, but the Fillies’ win over Conant this season in West division play means the Cougars will have to win its remaining conference games against Hersey and Hoffman Estates, and hope that either Palatine or Prospect can hand Barrington a second MSL loss.

Hersey leads the MSL East with a 7-1 conference record.