Bison move on to Pepsi quarterfinals with win over WW South
By Gary Larsen

Defenders hardly ever get their due and when they play on a team with a prominent attack, proper recognition is just about guaranteed to elude them.

Buffalo Grove has one of those teams, with no shortage of midfielders and forwards that possess star quality. But BG coach Pat Dudle knows that without his girls in back…

“We have some speed back there and we have some physical kids,” Dudle said. “They're not going to get the notoriety they deserve but we rely on them a lot. They have played phenomenally so far."

The Bison scored three goals in the first half to win 3-0 over Wheaton Warrenville South on Tuesday, posting their sixth shutout in improving to 9-0-1 and advancing to the quarterfinals of this year’s Pepsi Showdown.

With players like Sara Busse, Skylar Groth, Kelli and Colleen Zickert, and Allie Ingham leading the attacking charge thus far, Buffalo Grove has scored 33 goals through 10 games played this year. Kelli Zickert scored on a freekick and Busse tallied twice in Tuesday’s win.

Meanwhile, a BG backline led by Sara Brawley, JayJay Lowery, Elizabeth Chan, and Shannon Guercio in front of keeper Sarah O’Connor have only given up four goals this year, for a goals-against average of .4 per game.

"Our defense is really good and we don't get enough credit for it," Buffalo Grove defensive mid Kelly VandeMerkt said. "Brawley is really good and she really holds us down back there. She talks to our outside defenders and makes sure they know what they're doing, and we're really laid back, back there. We don't panic at all, which helps."

Brawley simplified the assessment. “We’re just good back there,” she said.

Buffalo Grove (9-0-1) used a three-goal outburst in the first half to put WW South (2-3-0) in a tough spot.  Zickert hammered a freekick past a wall of defenders and inside the post for her goal, and then provided a nifty touch over her shoulder to Busse, who buried her first goal from 8 yards out. Busse scored unassisted soon thereafter.

"We had a few bad mistakes late in the half, and we were down 3-0 within eight minutes," South coach Guy Callipari said.

A young Tigers team went into Tuesday’s game on the heels of a 5-0 win over OPRF on Saturday, getting goals from Anna Fank, Nikki Molino, Natalie Jensen, and two from Sarah Burns. Erin Madigan assisted on two goals and A.J. Jakuszewski provided the helper on a third.

"We always have the potential to do well,” Callipari said. “We have young kids that love the game and are passionate about playing collectively, but we haven't been able to overcome is the physicality that teams bring to the field. That always plays us out pretty quickly. We find ourselves embattled into situations that we're not physically prepared to play in."

Buffalo Grove went into Tuesday’s game after winning 3-1 over Oswego on Saturday. The Bison found considerably more connections throughout the second half against WW South, but scored all three of their goals in the first.

"We didn't make many connections at the beginning but then we settled down and got a few opportunities, and we put them in," Dudle said.

"I thought Kelly VandeMerkt set the tone in the second half. With all the punts and goal kicks, she won about five balls in the air in a row, to keep the ball in our (attacking) end. It's so important to win those fifty-fifties and she always does such a tremendous job with that."

VandeMerkt was happy to oblige.
"I like to go forward but I like to stay back, too, because as you saw with (WW South) they liked to just boot it over in the second half,” she said. “So I'd rather have numbers in the back than to have it be three-vee-three coming at us.”

The Bison spent a lot of time inside of South’s six-yard box in the second half, but the ball got defiant and South keeper Abby Fuster did the rest.

"I thought this was Abby's best game," Callipari said. "It's the most we've given up in a game but I thought it was her best effort because she came off her line more frequently, to play as a last defender as opposed to a line keeper, she was more communicative, her distribution was better -- we saw a lot of good things from Abby today.

“She's a leader and she wants to take responsibility for a 3-0 deficit, but I told her it wasn’t her responsibility. We were outshot 30 to 3 and we can't ask her to come up with really big saves when we're allowing people inside the six to have a free look at her."

Callipari was also pleased with the job Jensen did, often as a lone central defender facing multiple attacking players, “and A.J. sure puts in a lot of miles for us. She has a lot of heart and had to try to play one against three in the middle today."

The Tigers also played without injured star Dana Miller on Tuesday.

"Now that we're out of the Pepsi it gives us some leeway in terms of not bringing her back too soon," Callipari said. "Not only does (Miller) bring experience to a very inexperienced team, but she makes A.J. better. A.J. has no one else around her with that kind of ability to link, so it becomes very predictable in what she's trying to do. So we'd like to have (Miller) back but not at the cost of dragging the injury on."

The Tigers host Lincoln-Way North Thursday in a Pepsi consolation game, and then head back to Schaumburg’s Olympic Park for their final tournament game.

Buffalo Grove plays an MSL road game at Conant Wednesday before traveling to Glenbrook North for a Pepsi quarterfinal game.

"Wheaton Warrenville has so much history and we're so excited to be in this tournament to play quality teams like them," Dudle said. "We're happy to be in a position to be in the final eight of the tournament."

Where last year’s team at Buffalo Grove may have been considered a young upstart team, the Bison aren’t sneaking up on anyone with their unbeaten record.

"We had a few girls come out this year that didn't come out last year, which really adds to the team, and last year we were underdogs. No one really knew us,” VandeMerkt said. “But this year teams have a radar out for us and that's fine. It's nice being one of the teams to beat.”