Cougars look sharp in MSL victory over Knights

 

 

By Matt Le Cren

After getting off to a faster-than-expected start, Conant had won just once in its past four matches.

Could Jason Franco’s young team have hit the wall while playing a tough schedule?

Perish the thought.

The Cougars rose to the occasion Wednesday night, playing arguably their best game of the season in shutting out visiting Prospect 2-0 in Mid-Suburban League action in Hoffman Estates.

Forward Leah Celarek took advantage of great passes from Alyssa Altosino and Sidney O’Keefe to score both goals for Conant (7-3-3, 5-1-2), which remained one point ahead of Barrington (8-3-1, 5-2-1), which beat Wheeling 9-0, in the MSL West race.

“It’s our best effort from top to bottom for 80 minutes, so I’ll take that for sure,” Franco said. “I didn’t know what to expect, so hopefully this is a stepping stone into something that’s a little bit bigger because we’re going to have some tough games ahead of us.

“We play Viator tomorrow and then either Boylan or Waubonsie [at the Naperville Invitational] and then we’ve got Hersey and [Buffalo Grove next week]. If we can play like this and get a little bit better, hopefully we can compete in those games.”

The Cougars competed well against the visiting Knights (9-3-2, 4-3-1), who lost back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Each team had a few chances in the first 30 minutes, when play was mostly centered in the midfield.

Conant goalie Haley Anderson, who finished with six saves to record her seventh shutout, made two diving stops on open shots from Allison McCabe in the first 18 minutes, diving to her right to thwart the first attempt and to her left to corral the second.

Anderson’s counterpart, Eileen McTigue, also had a stellar night, coming up with eight saves, including a diving evert to tip a shot from Celarek around the left post in the fourth minute.

But McTigue was unable to stop Celarek when the sophomore received a pass up the middle from Altosino and suddenly accelerated around a defender. Celarek went top shelf with a nine-yard shot to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead with 2:45 left in the half.

“Alyssa played a great ball and I was just lucky enough to get on the end of it and get around [the defender],” Celarek said. “Sidney played a great ball on the second goal.”

Indeed, Celarek’s second goal, her fifth of the season, was just as much a bolt from the blue as the first. O’Keefe won a loose ball in the midfield and immediately sent a long lead pass up the left wing to Celarek, who scored on the breakaway at the 32:48 mark of the second half.

“It’s definitely pretty exhilarating when you get on those balls and you get there first, but I like to use my speed and I like to use my technical side because [Altosino and I] both come from a club that’s pretty technical,” Celarek said.

Celarek missed the first two weeks of the season with a knee injury and is just now rounding into shape. She has five goals so far and figures to be a major weapon in Conant’s arsenal.

“Tonight she looked the best that she’s looked,” Franco said. “She’s got a little burst.

“If we can get her and Sidney and Bianca [Madonia] all playing like that, we’re going to be a handful for some teams.”

“[Celarek] has great speed,” Altosino said. “We just try to do our best with defense first and then see if we can get the ball out to our forwards like Leah.”

Conant’s defense was its usual solid self, with Drew Wentzel, Kayla Severinsen and Katie Lomas limiting the Knights to nine shots and consistently getting the ball out to the likes of Altosino, Madonia, Nicole Lorenz and Courtney O’Keefe in the midfield.

Severinsen also had a role in pressuring Prospect’s defense with her free kicks and long balls. One booming send went over the top of the defense and forced McTigue to make back-to-back saves on Celarek from point-blank range with 1:20 to go before the break.

While the Cougars came up empty on that thrust, it demonstrated how fired up they were following Celarek’s first goal.

“Our past few games we’ve been going overtime or they’ve been close games, so getting that right before the half was a great motivation for us to come out in the second half and finish them early,” Altosino said.

Celarek’s second strike accomplished that, but the seeds of Prospect’s destruction were sown in the early going.

“I thought Conant brought good energy tonight and I think they won a lot of the 50-50 challenges,” Prospect coach Tom Froats said. “Those are going to make the difference in the game and I thought their energy and strength on the ball, we didn’t match that intensity or that physical nature that they brought.

“I know in spurts we did some good things and we had a little bit of possession in the second half. We did a little bit better but I think we were unsettled for much of the beginning of the match and I think that one goal certainly gave them a lot of confidence. I felt they played more confident after their first goal and did a nice job.”

The Knights did have one chance to tie the game early in the second half when freshman Martina Kowalczuk had a partial breakaway shot broken up by a charging Anderson.

Kowalczuk tracked the ball down in the right corner and sent a cross into the crease behind the retreating Anderson, only to see Wentzel calmly clear the ball out of danger with 36:40 to go. That turned out to be Prospect’s last shot on frame.

While Prospect is unlikely to catch Buffalo Grove in the MSL East, Conant has a legitimate shot of winning the MSL West and earning an unlikely spot in the MSL Soccer Bowl.

“We lost a lot of seniors from last year and this group is pretty young and we’ve been working really hard,” Altosino said. “So to come out on top would be pretty special.”

Not that the Cougars are looking that far ahead.

“It would be outstanding and obviously we’re taking it one game at a time,” Franco said. “We [didn’t] want to look past Prospect. They’ve had a great year and I thought we played well defensively, we played pretty well offensively.”

Franco got no argument from Froats.

“I tip my hat to Conant,” Froats said. “I thought they did a really nice job and we didn’t play well and Conant made us not play well. We’ve got to rise up and be willing to do what we need to get it done and that didn’t happen for us tonight.”

McTigue, though, was a big bright spot for the Knights.

“She’s done a nice job for us,” Froats said. “I know she was under pressure and we’re a little bit unsettled, making some changes. As a group we’ve just got to get tighter and keep it simple. Our defense was exposed a little and Eileen came up big for us on occasion.”