Prospect tops MSL foe Buffalo Grove 3-1

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By Gary Larsen

Toss a rock into Prospect’s team huddle this season and there’s a 50-50 chance you’ll hit a sophomore.

The young Knights (12-5-1, 4-5-1 in MSL play) won their 12th game on Monday, a 3-1 MSL win over host Buffalo Grove, while starting six sophomores and a freshman. Prospect’s varsity learning curve is pointed north for coach Tom Froats.

“We’re a little quicker on and off the ball now, and that’s giving us the ability to possess a little bit,” Froats said. “We’re making runs off the ball, which creates opportunities, and we had some real nice opportunities today when we switched the ball quickly and we were wide.”

“Now we just have to do that more consistently, to make it more of an advantage for us.”

Megan McCabe is just one of the Knights’ numerous sophomores, but a more vital one would be hard to find. McCabe has been rock-solid all season between the pipes, and while Buffalo Grove came out hard on Monday and tested her, she stayed reliable from start to finish.

McCabe kept good position and calmly fielded everything the Bison’s early spirited attack offered up. “At the beginning they were coming strong and had a lot of shots,” McCabe said. “But they weren’t all that difficult, and then we picked it up.”

The game’s first goal came in surprising fashion. Prospect senior Lexi Glennon sent a long free kick in from the left side that a Bison defender inadvertently flicked into net, 16 minutes into the contest.

Buffalo Grove’s passing game picked up steam as the game wore on, but the Bison found themselves two goals down before the break thanks to a nice connection between Prospect’s Kelli Iovino and Jessie Petrovski.

Iovino – another of the Knights’ countless sophomores -- grabbed the spotlight on a pair of counterattacking runs up the left side, first by going in alone on net and sending a shot just wide over a charging, sliding goalkeeper.

Iovino broke in again on a counter soon thereafter, again up the left side, and again faced a charging goalkeeper. This time, however, she slid a centering pass to sophomore Jessie Petrovski.

Petrovski teed up a shot in the 25th minute and buried it from 16 yards out. “That was a great individual effort by Kelli to set up that goal,” Froats said.

Iovino was just happy to have another crack at it, after her first run at the goalkeeper came up empty. “I was debating whether to go around her and take the shot, but the goal just kept getting smaller and smaller,” she said. “I tried to hit the corner but it went wide.”

“The second time I was just hoping to beat her to the ball. I got a touch around her, saw defenders coming at me, and Jessie made a great run to the middle.”

Buffalo Grove may have drawn a No. 16 postseason seed, but the Bison showed throughout the second half that they can play with skill and cohesion. Prospect withstood a sustained attack for much of the second half, but managed to hold the Bison to shots from distance.

“They have some pretty talented players – absolutely,” Froats said. “They broke us down a few times and I give them a lot of credit. They played hard.”

“I’m pleased. We had a tough tournament over the weekend and we came back on a Monday and gave a great effort.”

Froats would have preferred to see the Bison forced to settle for shots from slightly longer range, but Knight defenders Kelly Ziegenfuss, Sara Helwink, and Taylor Smith keyed an effort that kept the Bison from getting behind the defense throughout the contest.

“They’ve done a real nice job. Today I thought the decision-making was good, and I liked the way they worked the ball out of the back,” Froats said. “And I thought Kelli (Iovino) and Lexi Glennon did a real nice job of tracking back when we were under pressure.”

McCabe appreciated the effort her back line put in on Monday.

“Our defenders jockeyed back with them until they made a mistake, and then we stepped, got the ball, and cleared it,” she said. “I think we did really well with that.”

Buffalo Grove cut the Knights’ lead in half when Carly Brown sent a ball inside the far post from 20 yards out, with 14 minutes left in the game.

But no sooner had the home team put itself in position to chase after a tying goal when Prospect’s Susie Lello put forth an outstanding individual effort that iced the game.

The senior striker worked to get off a shot on a counterattack from the right side, and then chased down the deflected save to the left side of the net and finished on it with only three minutes left to play.

“She’s really working hard and playing both sides of the ball,” Froats said of Lello. “We’re that much better when she plays both sides of the ball. She tracks back to win (balls) and then you saw how dangerous she is one-vee-one, or even one-vee-two. She just has the confidence, skills, and speed that you need.”

Froats also applauded the game-long efforts put forth by Petrovski and Maureen O’Keefe, for a team that is beginning to play less like a group of wide-eyed youngsters, and more like a varsity squad.

“At the beginning of the year we were almost kind of down on ourselves, because we’re such a young team,” Iovino said. “We were playing hesitant, and we didn’t want to keep the ball too long because we were afraid of giving it up.”

“But we’re getting more confident, relying on each other to make the right runs, and taking more control of the ball.”

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