Cougars fall 4-3 to Minooka in OT

 

CLICK HERE FOR PLAINFIELD SOUTH'S TEAM PAGE

By Bill Scheibe

The sky above the Minooka stadium turned as dark as midnight, with lightning rippling across the clouds. Inside the locker room stood Plainfield South’s Kailyn Haski, who was readier than the thunder.

The freshman forward scored a pair of goals and had an assist in regulation Thursday afternoon, staking the Cougars to a 3-1 lead. But as the start of overtime loomed large, those storms meant little to Haski.

Quitting is for, well, quitters.

“I want to go back out and play,” Haski said as a sudden downpour began to rattle the bleachers overhead like a hammer pounding home nails. “I don’t want to go home. I want to finish and play.”

That play, however, would be suspended for another day due to lightning, with Minooka winning 4-3 on Friday.

And this after junior midfielder Alysha Alonzo had completed her three-goal hat trick with 7:32 remaining in Thursday's second half, allowing the host Indians to force overtime with a 3-3 tie in the Southwest Prairie Conference soccer matchup.

Complementing Haski, fellow freshman forward/midfielder Kelsey Pruett picked up a goal and an assist for Plainfield South (8-4-1, 2-2-0). Sophomore midfielders Alex Giatras and Alex Truhlar, whose knee injury kicked off a bizarre second half, added assists. Junior goalkeeper Taylor Schwebke made 12 saves.

For Minooka (6-8, 3-2), Ball State-bound senior midfielder Becca Sutton notched two assists – both on restart beauts. All three of the Indians’ goals came on restarts, with Alonzo taking advantage of a pair of corner kicks and a free kick. Meanwhile, senior goalkeeper April Wilke contributed seven saves.

Perhaps an even bigger cloud, though, materialized during the second half as the Cougars lost three players to injuries. The worst situation occurred with 9:17 left as South junior forward Ashley Taylor suffered a broken ankle in the box. An ambulance was called to transport Taylor to the hospital.

So, while Haski was hoping for the gloom and doom of the impending storm to pass, Plainfield South coach Kevin Allen was more than happy to have his girls get on the bus for a return down Ridge Road.

You’ve heard of black cats …

“I felt like we were cursed,” Allen said. “It was just one thing after another today. It’s frustrating. I think we had a good run of the play in the first half and we tried to get one more goal before halftime, but we pressed and pressed and we couldn’t get one. And then we were on our heels the whole second half.”

“It was definitely not a good day,” Haski nodded. “I think all the injuries started to freak us out. We were getting panicked, and we needed to calm down and play our game. We played much better in the first half than the second, and with the injuries working through, we felt we needed to do something more.”

There seemingly was something for everyone in the first half, with Pruett cashing in with 36:59 left for the 1-0 lead. After the initial cross by Truhlar, Haski took a turnaround shot from the right post. Wilke bobbled the ball, with Pruett corralling the rebound and pumping a shot into the lower-left corner.

“It’s good to get the lead right way, but sometimes it’s not,” Pruett pointed out. “When you know you’re winning, you think you can just lollygag around just because you’re winning and maybe you don’t put as much effort in as you should. I think it hurt us and helped us in some ways to score a goal right away.”

Antsy for a comeback, Minooka nearly gained the equalizer with 21:54 remaining. Schwebke sped off the goal line to stop a breakaway, and before the ball could roll into the net, sophomore sweeper Abby

Banks delivered a non-goalie save and cleared safely out of bounds to protect the 1-0 advantage.
“I think that’s what got us all excited for the game – to start to do what we needed to do,” Banks said.

“After we scored our first goal, I thought we got a little bit too comfortable. But after they scored, we stepped it right up because we needed to, and keeping the goals coming built up our confidence.”

That confidence soared despite Alonzo leaping into the space on a Sutton corner kick and heading the ball down into the left corner for a 1-1 tie at 20:57 remaining. On a feed from Giatras, Haski responded by trapping the ball, spinning and firing a bullet-like shot into the left corner for a 2-1 lead at 18:10 left.

The plot turned due north for South in the first 15 minutes of the second half. A through-ball pass from Pruett sent in Haski with 27:25 to go, and her original shot spun through the legs of a sprawled Wilke and caromed off the short-side right post. Haski controlled the rebound and tapped it into an empty net.

Where’s the rewind button?

“I’d love to redo the two-goal lead,” Allen said. “I told the girls at halftime, the team that scores the next goal in the second half is going to win the game, but we just didn’t pressure them after we scored and we let them back in the second time around. We’re a young team struggling to put teams away.”

“I’m lucky I followed my shot,” Haski said. “It hit the post and I just went to it. I really thought my first shot was going to go out, but I followed through anyway and I was lucky to get to it and get it in.”

The going got rough after Truhlar departed. Assistant coach Dave Brown called her “the engine in the car, and you know what happens to a car without an engine.” Allen acknowledged as much, noting that “we weren’t able to maintain our possession without her and we were on our heels a lot after that.”

Thereafter, Minooka also displayed a head-over-heels effort. Sutton placed a free kick into the box and Alonzo powered a point-blank shot past Schwebke with 22:58 remaining. As the Cougars reeled from Taylor’s injury, within a mere 1:45, Alonzo headed in another corner kick to form the 3-3 deadlock.

What happens from here will be determined. South plays Saturday and Monday, with today being a likely makeup date. According to Banks and Pruett, the Cougars have to keep their chins, and shins, up.

“We have to play as a team like we have been doing all year long,” Banks said. “We have to deal with the injuries, and that doesn’t change what we need to do. We need to step up and play as a team.”

“We have to want to play and want to win,” Pruett said, “for them – for our three hurt players.”
For sure.