Mulroe goal sends Hersey past Elk Grove
By Eric Van Dril

In an instant, Elk Grove's best scoring chance of the game morphed into the perfect Hersey counter attack.

With 16:40 remaining in Wednesday night's MSL East match, Elk Grove senior Sarah Stram lined up a free kick and struck a dangerous ball into the box. Stram's free kick appeared to bounce off of a player's hip in a mad scramble in front of Hersey goalkeeper Morgan Harris. The ball momentarily seemed destined for the back of the net, but it struck the bottom half of the cross bar and was quickly cleared away from danger by Hersey.

Then, suddenly, the Huskies were on the counter attack.

“We were so close to getting that goal, and they just came back,” Elk Grove junior midfielder Kelly Regan said. “I think too many of us were pushed up, so we didn't get back as fast.”

Hersey sophomore Kayla Knauss and senior midfielder Sarah Mulroe immediately sprinted toward the opposite end of the field on the counter attack, and the pair was able to create a two-on-one situation. Knauss, running down the right side of the field, attracted Elk Grove's lone defender before hitting a perfect long pass to Mulroe, who ran onto the ball.

Mulroe collected the ball about 50 yards from goal, took a good first touch and was immediately in on junior goalkeeper Melissa Solorio. Mulroe took several good touches down the middle of the field and, before Solorio could aggressively leave her line like she had throughout the night, Mulroe blasted a high, left-footed shot. The shot went over Solorio and dipped down, avoiding the cross bar to give Mulroe her first varsity goal and Hersey a 1-0 victory.

“All season I've been hitting them high, and then I leaned over like I try in practice and it went in,” Mulroe said.

On the goal, “I was kind of focusing on taking good touches because the grass is a little bumpy,” Mulroe added. “And then I was thinking, 'lean over my shot' when I got closer to the goal.”

Mulroe's finish was picturesque to Hersey coach Brad Abel.

“She took a positive touch toward the goal; head up, ankle locked, knee over the ball and she just put it right past the keeper,” Abel said.

Mulroe's goal was vital not only because it stunned the Grens, but because Elk Grove has been so tough to beat when it scores first this season. In previous games, the Grens (8-5-0, 6-4 MSL) have shifted its best athletes to defense after scoring first, putting up a wall which most teams are unable to penetrate.

Elk Grove wasn't able to make that adjustment on Wednesday night, however, but it was still very effective by playing a defense-first style. The team often had its four-person back line of junior Jocelyn Potratz, sophomore Alexis Olague and freshmen Bailey Murphy and Alyson Czyzewski joined by wide midfield players Kelly Naughton and Elizabeth McDaniel to, in essence, create a six-person line of defenders in front of Solorio when Hersey was able to get into good, attacking position.

With Hersey unable to create quality opportunities like it did in the first half – the Huskies' best chance came when junior Lauren Gierman's left-footed shot from the edge of the box struck the cross bar with 24:52 remaining in the half – scoring on a set piece or catching Elk Grove by surprise on the counter attack appeared to be the two most logical ways the squad was going to score the all-important first goal in the second half.

“I stressed to the girls that the first goal is going to determine who's going to come out on top tonight,” Abel said. “(Elk Grove coach Dan Klaus) has got a really nice team. They play hard. He's got some really nice players, so it was good to get this gritty win.”

The Huskies (11-3-4, 7-1-2 MSL) also played exceptional defense on Wednesday night. Hersey largely shut down Elk Grove's attack, as Knauss, junior Megan Brant, junior Sara Magnuson and sophomore Anne Korff stayed behind Grens forwards Stram and junior Nikki Zaino.

Because the Grens played such a defense-first style, Stram and Zaino had to regularly battle against two or three defenders – they very rarely had one-on-one opportunities in the game – and Hersey's defensive integrity was frustrating for Zaino.

“It does,” said Zaino, when asked if going against two or three defenders every time becomes frustrating for her. “But you can't let it get to you because there's nothing you can really do about it. I have Stram supporting me; she does well. And I have Emily (Wary) behind me and Kelly (Naughton) making a run up (the sideline), so I'm not totally alone. It is frustrating, but you've just got to work with it.”

With a little less than four minutes in the game, Solorio boomed a lengthy punt down the field toward Zaino in a last-ditch effort to catch the Hersey defense off guard. Zaino managed to fight off a pair of defenders, but the junior's momentum was taking her away from the goal and her shot – an off-balance attempt from about 15 yards away – was easily gobbled up by Harris as the junior goalkeeper was sliding to her right.

That last-ditch attempt represented Elk Grove's final, and best, goal-scoring opportunity after Mulroe scored the eventual game-winner.

Mulroe's goal seemed to stun the Grens, a team whose only victories this season have been shutouts. With the postseason quickly approaching, the main takeaway from Hersey's 1-0 victory for Zaino was the need to try to fight back if Elk Grove concedes the first goal.

“We definitely should have came back and scored,” Zaino said. “I think we're letting (conceding first) get to us, but we shouldn't be. And we just need to come back, work harder to try to tie it and not get down on ourselves.”

Zaino added: “We have to learn how to come back after a team scores. We've just got to pick our heads up, forget about this and go and we have Fremd on Friday. We have to come back and try to get that win.”

While Elk Grove struggled to create quality goal-scoring opportunities in the match's final 16 minutes, it largely controlled the first 24 minutes of the second half. The team appeared to grow more confident on the ball and it seemed as if a goal was coming in the second half, right before the ball bounced off the post and Hersey struck on the counter attack.

Elk Grove was able to sustain its attack largely by making an adjustment in the second half to try to take Gierman off of the ball. Gierman was comfortable in her center midfield spot in the first half, collecting the ball and accurately distributing it to attacking players like seniors Casey Weyhrich, Amy Kappelman and Kaitlyn Smetana.

The Grens made an adjustment in the attempt to limit the Northern Illinois University commit's touches and cut down on her space when she did get the ball.

“We tried to have one person stay on her and do what she does,” Regan said. “We tried to guard her more.”

Still, the game was a defensive-minded contest which included just three shots on goal by Elk Grove and seven shots on goal by Hersey. Many of Hersey's chances were thwarted by Solorio, who was confident coming off of her line and booting the ball away with her left foot.

Limiting a team's quality scoring chances has been a theme throughout Hersey's unbeaten streak, which is currently more than a month long.

“I think, defensively – forwards down to our keeper – we've collectively come together defensively,” Abel said, regarding one of the keys to the winning streak. “We've got a bunch of role players on this team, and we're trying to possess the ball when we can. You know, just playing simple, smart soccer.”

Hersey next plays in an 11 a.m. home game against Fremd on Saturday, one day after the Grens battle the Vikings in Palatine. Both teams will play on Tuesday, May 7 in an MSL West vs. East crossover.