Lancers rally to claim a draw with Batavia in Early Bird

 

 

By Curt Herron

For much of Tuesday's initial match of Lake Park's Early Bird Invite, it looked like Batavia was going to claim a victory over the hosts.

Heading into the final quarter hour, the Bulldogs seemed to be in control after scoring a pair of goals while shutting down the Lancers.

But the Lancers weren't content to go away quietly and rallied for a pair of quick scores to tie things up heading into the final minutes.

Batavia had chances to regain the lead but Lake Park held it at bay and the squads settled for a 2-2 draw at Schaumburg's Olympic Park.

While that type of result doesn't often assure a favorable response, both sides were satisfied after walking away with some positives.

For Lake Park, there was the expected excitement that comes after seeing a squad battle back from adversity to nearly pull out a win.

Meanwhile, Batavia came away pleased with its efforts for much of the match, as well as its late fight as it tried to regain the lead.

Megan Lindbert led the comeback for the Lancers (2-1-1) by remaining persistent to score a pair of goals within a three-minute span.

Those late heroics offset a first half goal by Kim Stanczak and a score after the break by Megan McEachern for the Bulldogs (2-0-1).

"I was really excited to see the girls continue to battle and then at the end to be able to finish on a couple of nice goals," Lancer coach Chris Fruehling said. "It's just a tribute that our girls will play 80 minutes, no matter what the score is. When you have that mentality, you just never know what will happen.

"Even though Batavia is a very good team, we were able to believe that we could come back, even though things weren't going our way. But credit Batavia for that since they executed their game-plan with good possession and finding their forwards up top.

"We had to make a few adjustments and put some girls in spots they normally don't play and they adapted to it. We put Megan up top in the second half, dropped Jessica Berkshire from forward to central mid, moved my sweeper Casey Harris to central mid in a stopper position when we brought in Mary Reid into the back as the sweeper.

"Megan is a wonderful person and player and her experience with us for the past four years really showed today. The composure and the confidence that she has really were able to give our team lift. This is a result that we can build off of and learn from and apply to our practices to see what we can do if we stay focused for all 80 minutes."

While many coaches would have been disappointed to see a late two-goal lead slip away, Bulldogs boss Mark Gianfrancesco had a different view.

That's because his squad played well for most of the match and then overcame the adversity to nearly reclaim the advantage in the late going.

"We just need to learn how to finish our opportunities," Gianfrancesco said. "I thought that we did a nice job of breaking pressure and we dominated for most of the game. But those things are going to happen and it's how you react to that and it was good to see how we reacted to their goals. Give it to Lake Park since they kept pressing and we struggled to control #13 (Lindbert).

"For the most part we reacted pretty positively and continued to work the ball up and we continued to create other chances after their first goal and after the second goal. The girls stayed positive and didn't put their heads down and just kept playing and that's going to bode well for future games if we're in that situation.

"Is it a dire situation and does it feel good to give up those goals? No. But it's an imperfect game and you have to know what it feels like to get score on. It's nice to see what we're working on in practice come through in a game in regards to moving off the ball, quick touches and moving the ball around quickly which creates a lot of opportunities.

"Almost half of my team are underclassmen and they're going to keep getting better and the seniors have offered a lot of leadership to them, so that helps out quite a bit, as well. I'm pretty encouraged and pleased by what I've seen so far."

Following a brief delay due to an injury, Lake Park went on the attack in the final quarter hour as it looked to overcome a 2-0 deficit.

Lexi Ruffolo got things started when she created a corner kick and Jessica Berkshire sent the corner to Ruffolo, whose try was thwarted.

A couple of minutes later, Emily Adelman sent a pass to Lindbert, who got free and put in a close-range attempt to make it a 2-1 match.

That was the first score allowed this season by Batavia, which had done a good job of keeping the Lancers from getting many opportunities.

Shortly after McEachern was denied on a short shot on the other side of the field, Lindbert was at it again as she found the equalizer.

After accepting another long pass downfield, the Lancer senior got past a defender and fired in an effort that sailed over the keeper.

"We kept battling through the whole game," Lindbert said. "At the end, we pushed because we wanted to win. I wanted to get us a good result and not see us go down to them. To get the goals that we did came from hard work. Emily sent in the first ball and I ran in on it and on the other one, came after I made a run to the side and then turned and shot it.

"It took us awhile to figure out our marks in the midfield but in the end we were able to figure it out and we pushed and were able to get some goals. My favorite thing about us is how we're all together as a team. We get down on ourselves some times but we each pick each other up and we battle back no matter what. We tend to push the hardest at the end of games."

Despite the momentum having swung in Lake Park's favor, the Bulldogs still had plenty of fight left in them for the final 10 minutes.

A corner by Anna Zeyen went to McEachern, but her try was cleared by Lindsey Troyke. A bit later, McEachern had a line drive stopped.

Batavia grabbed the early advantage about half an hour into the match when Zeyen sent a flip throw that got to Stanczak, who connected.

The Bulldogs had other good chances during the opening half but couldn't finish, and their frustration extended well beyond the break.

About a quarter hour into the new half, Batavia added to its lead when Shelby Stone found McEachern, who put in a close-range attempt.

After struggling to put things together during much of the final half, the Lancers suddenly came to life, thanks to Lindbert's heroics.

The squads end tournament play on Thursday. Lake Park faces Glenbard South at 10 a.m. before 1-0-1 Batavia takes on 2-0 Buffalo Grove.