Spartans overcome early deficit to beat Glenbard South

 

 

By Matt Le Cren

A good leader takes responsibility not only for her successes but also her mistakes.

That’s exactly what St. Francis senior goalie Jenna DiTusa did Friday night.

The Spartans’ captain and four-year starter didn’t shy away from talking about the rare mistake she made that led to an early Glenbard South goal, speaking articulately about the miscue and her appreciation for the way her teammates rallied St. Francis to a harder-than-expected 2-1 victory in Glen Ellyn.

DiTusa has kept the Spartans in countless games with her brilliant play over the past four seasons and backstopped the team to its first state championship last spring.

She makes mistakes about as often as Halley’s Comet comes around, which makes what happened Friday in the third minute all the more stunning.

DiTusa was a little tardy in booting a clearing attempt out of her end and had it intercepted by a charging Hailey Hawkins at the top of the penalty area.

Hawkins passed the ball to her left to Stephanie Brennan, who sent a 12-yard shot past the retreating DiTusa into the far right corner of the net to give Glenbard South a 1-0 lead.

It was the first goal the Spartans (6-0) have allowed this season. DiTusa figured to give up a goal at some point but nobody envisioned it happening in that fashion.

“I waited too long to take the kick so it was totally my fault,” DiTusa said. “I take all the blame.

“That kind of goal happens to me like once every two years, so at least I got it out [of the way early in the] season, before conference, before playoffs, so we’re all good there.”

Indeed, the Spartans recovered nicely from the shock, slowly taking control the game over the first 15 minutes and scoring twice before halftime to take the lead.

“I thought [the Raiders] played a great first 15 minutes,” St. Francis coach Jim Winslow said. “Jenna made the mistake and I told her, ‘no big deal,’ because I know 99 percent of the time that’s not going to happen.”

The Spartans, who are now a game ahead of the pace they set in 2012, when they went 24-3 and gave up just 11 goals, weren’t concerned about being behind for the first time this season.

“We weren’t worried,” senior Sarah Rahman said. “We said, ‘we know we can do this, we can get it back.’”

That they did. Rahman netted the equalizer in the 19th minute, booting home a cross from speedy sophomore Corky Hart, who had made a long overlap run up the right wing from her fullback position.

From there, the Spartans poured on the pressure and kept the Raiders (1-5-2) on their toes.

The visitors missed four solid chances to take the lead over the next 10 minutes as Rahman sent a wide-open shot over the crossbar from 10 yards out, senior Taylor Bucaro had a 22-yard free kick denied by diving Glenbard South goalie Dana Jourdan and Anna Vonderhaar and Taylor Van Thournout were off target with shots.

Jourdan did well to keep her team in contention, making seven saves, but her play was not enough to keep the Spartans at bay.

The Raider keeper made an incredible diving stop on Rahman’s shot from point-blank range in the final seconds of the first half, only to see Regan Kasprak rush in to score on the rebound as time expired. The goal was Kasprak’s second in as many days and turned out to be the game-winner.

“Had we had another five or 10 minutes in the first half, we probably could have got another one,” Winslow said. “In the first half we had three or four or five sitters that if we put them away this game isn’t as interesting.”

Though the Spartans were unable to net any insurance goals, they weren’t in much danger of losing the lead. They outshot the Raiders 14-4 and DiTusa had to make only one save to stretch her squad’s winning streak to 15 dating back to last season.

But the early deficit taught St. Francis a lesson.

“Our coach always tells us we kind of don’t come out from the start,” DiTusa said. “We kind of just wait until something dramatic happens, then actually start playing to our fullest.

“Sometimes we need that shock factor. We’re trying to work on playing like that throughout the game, but I’m so grateful that I have a team that will back me up and totally make up for my mistakes in that regard.”

While Glenbard South has struggled, the Spartans knew enough not to take a victory for granted.

“We didn’t know a lot about their record going into this,” DiTusa said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game [based on] past years we’ve played them. We knew we had to go into it fighting because we know that we have a target on our backs because of last year because of [winning] state.

“So we knew that basically every team this year that we play is going to bring this intensity and bring this level of play so we’re just trying to match that.”

That’s been somewhat difficult because the Spartans were unable to practice outside until Wednesday because of the frigid weather, so integrating 10 new players with six returning starters is an ongoing process.

“It’s an entirely new team and we just have to get used to each other,” Rahman said. “The weather has been absolutely awful and our tournament got cancelled last week so this was our first real game on a nice field. I feel like we’re finally starting to play as a team and we’re really fast this year.”

Winslow agrees.

“I still don’t have a clue as to how good we’re going to be,” Winslow said. “I think the one difference we may have as opposed to last year is last year we could knock the ball around better, but I think we have more team speed this year.

“Corky’s very fast, Regan’s very fast, Kaity [Bucaro] is fast, Taylor [Van Thournout] who plays back there is mobile. There’s still a lot of working parts to figure out but I’m sure everyone is going through the same thing.”