Scouts settle for scoreless draw against Stevenson

 

 

By Curt Herron

There were only a handful of matches which took place on Thursday due to the excessive rainfall that hit the entire Chicago area.

Lake Forest managed to host one of those, and on the surface, had little to show for it following a scoreless draw with Stevenson.

But on a day where there was a lot of flooding yet things were dry at the West Campus field, first impressions can be misleading.

That's because despite settling for a fifth tie in nine matches, the Scouts had many reasons to feel proud of their performance.

Although his squad's struggles to find the net continued, Ty Stuckslager felt that Thursday's effort was their best of the season.

While Lake Forest suffered its third shutout and was held to one goal or less for the eighth time, it had great chances throughout.

Had it not been for fine goalkeeping and defense, the Scouts likely would have captured the North Suburban Conference Lake match.

"We played our best game of the year," Stuckslager said. "I don't think they had a shot in the second half and they may have one in the first half. We played very well and moved the ball around and attacked with it. We created opportunities but their goalie came up with some big plays and she was in the right place at the right time in the second half.

"You have to create situations before you can score goals and I thought that we did a great job of putting them under pressure and at times it was relentless pressure. The girls said that one went in, just like we thought that we had one go in against Warren that wasn't called but some times you can't blame the ref when it happens so quickly."

Beside the close calls, the Scouts coach was pleased with his defense's work to help Liz Clark post the squad's fourth shutout.

"On defense we started with Bailey Ehrens and Sydney Johnston outside and had Kendall Hoke and Dani Loeger in the middle and they did a great job, especially when we were going against the wind," Stuckslager said. "They didn't give up and head balls and allowed no long through balls. And then Mackenzie Mick came in so we had five good backs today.

"They actually started our offense a lot of times and we built from them and it made Stevenson chase a little more probably than it wanted to and made them a little tired. But Stevenson was also organized defensively and they packed it in."

Although the Scouts (3-1-5, 0-0-3) still have more draws than wins, their coach likes the progression that his squad is making.

"We're 3-1-5 and undefeated in conference, but also winless," joked Stuckslager. "We had a couple of opportunities that we put on goal that maybe we should have slid across, but that's all fine tuning. To get in the position to have opportunities is excellent so we just have to work on the next step.

"We film just about every game because we haven't been able to practice as much. We had a 40-minute film session the other day and the girls watched intently as we went through the previous game and learned from it and that showed today. You take steps and this was a big step for us since it was the first time that we played 80 minutes of good soccer."

After not allowing the Patriots (4-3-3, 2-1-1) many chances with a strong wind, the hosts got that advantage after the break.

But despite the scouts making the most of the wind, Mark Schartner's squad received a fine effort in net from Cori Calcaterra.

In the last half hour, the Scouts kept the Patriot keeper active, but she managed to be regularly in position to stymie them.

That included a flick by Carly Hoke off a Sydney Johnston pass and a try by Lucy Edwards after a wide effort by Paige Bourne.

The final 15 minutes of play featured plenty of ooh's and ah's, starting with wide attempts from Jenny McKendry and Carly Hoke.

Lake Forest looked like it finally might connect in the 72nd minute when Carly Hoke sent a pass to Bourne, who found McKendry.

But her close-range shot was pushed over the net by Calcaterra, setting up one of the many corner kick chances for the hosts.

The subsequent corner kick looked like it might find the net as it danced near the line before a defender finally cleared it.

Lake Forest had a couple of other chances but Bourne and McKendry were both denied and a bit later the final whistle sounded.

"We kept pushing and pushing and did everything that we could but the ball just wouldn't go into the net," Johnston said. "But it was a very good game for us and everyone made contributions. we played really well as a team but things just didn't go our way today. We do need to get some wins, but this is better than losing.

"It's been a little difficult for us to put the ball over the line. We get into perfect position, but we don't have that final push, but we feel that it's coming. We get along really well and our chemistry is really great. We play with so much heart out there and we're all fighting for each other."

Although Stevenson had the wind edge in the initial 40 minutes, the hosts managed to create most of the best opportunities.

That was reflected in chances following the half's midpoint, starting with a long free kick from Kendall Hoke to the keeper.

After Adrian Walker sent an attempt wide, a throw-in by Kendall Hoke led to a short try by Sheridan Weiss, who was thwarted.

The hosts kept battling through to the break, with Brooke Green getting stopped on a chip not long before the whistle blew.

Lake Forest returns to league play next week with a Tuesday trip to Libertyville and a Thursday home date with Zion-Benton.