Spartans fight good fight but drop shootout to Glenwood
Undermanned St. Francis goes 2-0-1 at two-day Prospect Invite

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By Mike Garofola

Soccer weather it wasn't - in fact, Saturday would have been a better scene for the U.S. Postal Service to film a commercial about its 'neither snow, nor rain' long-time motto instead.

Glenwood Chatham 'delivered' in a shoot-out on the squishy pitch of Prospect, finishing 4 straight spot-kicks and defeating St. Francis 1-0 (4-3) to book its place in the finals of the Prospect Invite. The host Knights later defeated the Titans in shoot-out for the second consecutive year.

The tournament was rough on St. Francis coach Jim Winslow’s squad.

"We're just not equipped for a weekend like this," said Winslow, as he looked back at how his undermanned side played three matches in less than 24 hours, in conditions better suited for penguins and other Antarctic creatures than for soccer in the northwest suburbs.

"We had a couple of players with the flu, Kaity (Bucaro) just had her wisdom teeth pulled, and I really believe all of that might have caught up with us in the later stages of the second half, because we were just gassed at the end of this match," added Winslow.

After both sides survived well-deserved 2-1 victories Friday night in the rain, the stage was set for yesterday's semifinal between two quality 2A sides, with a chance to play for the tournament championship in the late afternoon.

"We were really looking forward to playing St. Francis, and I kind of wish we could play them again, but on turf, or (better) conditions, because I really feel it could have been a terrific match to watch for the coaches, players and fans," said Glenwood head coach Jay Lipe, who is closing in on 300 wins and has brought his program to the state tournament four times since 2001, most recently two years ago when they garnered a 3rd-place trophy.

"It kind of looked like they were tiring a little bit in the second half, but all-in-all it was a pretty good game considering the conditions,” Lipe said. “Both teams did their best to create some chances to be dangerous at times.”

The Spartans (8-4-2) came forward a multitude of times in the first quarter-hour, as their pace, energy and skill caused the Titans (6-2-1) no end of problems. Andi Matichak, Andrea Ravlin and Sydney Fox left a trail of defenders in their wake as the trio enjoyed the bulk of the touches in their opponent’s end during this time.

"I thought we had a very good first half, and probably had the most of the run of play, but that probably fell off a little bit in the second half," offered Fox.

"We like to knock the ball around, and use the width of the field to pass and to help open things up in our attack, but as much as we tried to do that today, it was still pretty hard to play that way with any consistency, because the field was getting worse as the game went on."

Titans keeper Cara Moody got a glove on a strike from Matichak at the near post in the 6th minute, but the junior keeper was at her best at 10 minutes when she stopped Matichak point-blank, when the Spartans junior, on the turn, fired her cracker after a nifty steal gave her the opportunity to walk in.

On the ensuing corner, Moody pulled a Fox serve out of the air at the spot to end that particular sequence of events.

The Titans came alive with its scoring star from the night before, Abby Juhlin, playing a key part in their uprising. The downstate power finished the final 8-10 minutes of the first half on its front foot as it crafted some quality possession and chances to force the Spartans backline to respond, and take notice of their now revved-up opponents.

"It was fun to watch two teams who play with the same formation (4-3-3) still able to create, even though they're so much alike going forward," Lipe said afterwards.

Juhlin's looping serve to the spot was collected quite well by Spartans keeper Jenna Ditusa, who managed the mucky conditions in her box flawlessly, and was especially sharp when her mates in the back, Kate Roback, Dana Dubois, Meg Wagner and Taylor Ravlin routinely played the ball back to the sophomore.

Both sides began brightly enough after the break, with Glenwood’s Kayla Torry having a nice go from 20 yards on frame, while the Spartans, after a wonderfully constructed build-up ended with Fox hitting the side netting.

Kaity Bucaro would initiate things from the middle of the park, while Matichak kept the play alive when she played to space, with Fox running on.

The Titans would slowly begin to gain control of the run of play, and when Ditusa stopped freshman Kassidy Sheedy, and then pushed a dangerous in-swinger away from Alise Wisniewski, it signaled a time in which the Spartans had to play more defensive, look to counter, and maybe play for a draw and a shoot-out to decide the winner.

"Our feet were getting heavy and we didn't have a lot left at the end, but we were still playing as hard as we could in the final ten minutes or so of regulation," said Fox, who nearly saw Roback surprise the Titans in the closing moments - if not for an alert charge off the line by the Glenwood keeper Moody.

Both sides were perfect in the first three rounds of PK's - as Matichak and Fox converted with ease, and Anna Vonderhaar chipped Moody with a deft touch.

Ditusa got a glove on Taylor Copp's spotkick, but too much pace sent the ball into the back of the net to give the Titans a 4-3 edge heading into round No. 5 - where an athletic save by Moody sent the Spartans into the third-place match.

"To say that we could have the chance to go 2-0-1 with little depth, and in these weather conditions, is a tribute to the play of this team, and all I can say is that I am very proud of all of them after this weekend," said Winslow.