Lancers post third consecutive win
By Bill Hupp

It was a spontaneous celebration by Lake Park goalie Rebecca Thorne, but somehow it felt right.

As the final horn officially capped the Lancers’ 5-0 win, she randomly did a somersault before jogging up to the handshake line. Meanwhile, on the sideline, Lake Park head coach Chris Fruehling had to be doing flips over how well his team played.

On a chilly day with ominous grey skies threatening rain, the Lancers scored an early goal and cruised to a commanding 5-0 road win over conference rival Bartlett at Streamwood’s Millennium Field.

“We’ve been trying to have a consistent level of play,” Coach Fruehling said of his team’s approach coming into the game. “We want to give the same effort and just worry about how we’re playing. I’d rather have our girls focus on things that they can control.”

All night, Lake Park (8-4-1) possessed the ball well and played an attractive, finesse style of soccer featuring short controlled passes to feet and lots of smart combinations.

Less than 10 minutes into the game, Lake Park opened the scoring when senior Megan Lindbert ran on to a long ball played down the left flank, cut it back on her right foot as her defender flew by and hammered a strong shot past Bartlett goalkeeper Amanda Lozada into the upper 90 of the net for an early 1-0 advantage that Lake Park took into halftime.

Eager to build on their momentum, the Lancers came out with great energy in the second half and wasted little time adding to their lead. Less than a minute in, a nice run by Rachel Garripo forced a corner. Jessica Berkshire’s subsequent corner kick was tapped in past a sprawling Lozada.

“We had a really good possession game,” Berkshire said. “It was important that we played to feet and moved around, especially in the cold.”

Perhaps the strangest goal of the match came with 35:06 to play, when Jessica Berkshire’s corner glanced off a Bartlett defender guarding the far post and bounced in to give the Lancers a 3-0 lead. With 26:14 to go, a corner from Jacey Kent found an on-rushing Emily Adelman at the near post to extend the rout to 4-0. Berkshire scored the fifth and final goal on her own, powering past defenders to slot it home.

“The girls stayed aggressive today, continued to work on finding the right connection,” Coach Frueling said. “Being able to finish [scoring opportunities] is, as a coach, very exciting to see.”

In the back, Lake Park’s defense led by Casey Harris and Lauren Bolnius did a nice job of blocking outside shots in helping goalie Rebecca Thorne keep a clean sheet. Unofficially, Lake Park outshot the young Hawks 22-3 and took eight corners to the Hawks’ two. The Lancers have won four of their last five games by a combined score of 26-2.

“It’s exciting to have our injured players back from last year,” Coach Fruehling said. “We’ve been focusing on building chemistry and finishing scoring opportunities. There’s some top talent in our conference and we have to keep improving, not only to compete with them, but also in the state series.”

Bartlett (8-6) competed hard and played well in stretches, but they understand how difficult winning in their conference is when you start six freshmen on a team with no seniors and just one upperclassman in the junor Lozada, who unofficially stopped seven Lancer shots.

“I saw some good soccer from a couple of kids and we controlled some of the game in the middle of the field. Junior [Alba], Kaitlin [Brohan] and Shelley [Lyjak],” said Bartlett head coach Heather Thomas said. “Unfortunately, we just couldn’t generate much of an attack.”

The loss is Bartlett’s second straight after they had won seven of their previous eight games. With conference powerhouses like Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley and Metea Valley coming up on the schedule, Coach Thomas knows that attitude and improvement is everything during the current conference season.

“We have one of the best conferences in the state, so I think that presents a challenge with how young our team is,” she said. “We need to stay positive and keep [the kids’] heads in the game. We need our leaders like Amanda Lozada, Shannon [Brohan] and Karina [Briones] need to continue to step up and provide encouragement.”