Chicagoland Soccer

Mustangs improve to 7-1-1 with win over Glenbard West

By Matt Le Cren

Downers Grove South midfielder Jessica Bronke thought she had scored her sixth goal of the season as her 35-yard laser headed toward the upper left corner of the net Thursday night.

Glenbard West goalie Anna Soane, however, leaped as high as she could to tip the shot over the crossbar at the last moment to keep the game scoreless.

“I was really shocked she got that,” Bronke said.

Unfortunately for Soane and the Hilltoppers, it was only the opening salvo in a barrage that lasted for most of the rest of the match. Bronke did get her team-leading sixth goal less than a minute later when she knocked home a beautifully tight corner kick from Megan Martin to give the host Mustangs a 1-0 lead with 11:44 remaining in the first half en route to a 4-0 victory in Downers Grove.

“It was good that Megan played that ball because then right away we were able to score and get our momentum back,” Bronke said, “and then right after we got the first goal we just kept going harder and harder.”

Indeed, just 72 seconds later Keri Kujawa kept pace with Bronke by notching her sixth goal, sprinting around a defender into the box and beating Soane inside the right post from 10 yards out.

“I took [the defender] on and I got the shot off and the goalie wasn’t ready for it,” Kujawa said.

The Hilltoppers (2-5-2) weren’t ready for the size and speed of the Mustangs (7-1-1), who dominated the midfield and patiently broke down West’s packed-in defense. Though they wouldn’t score again until the final eight minutes of the match, the hosts outshot the Hilltoppers 22-4, including two balls that hit the right post.

“It was a tough week for us having two tough games against obviously one opponent that’s ranked and one that’s on the borderline of being ranked,” said Glenbard West coach Maciek Kusmierz, whose team was coming off a 4-0 loss to Lyons in which the Hilltoppers played tough before giving up two late goals. “Today’s game we played against a very physical team. It’s tough. You can’t coach the size.

“We tried to hold our own and we did fairly well in the second half. It’s tough to play against tough, physical teams when you’re forced to defend for the most part and when you do have your chances, they don’t come very often and you spend a lot of energy to defend your own goal. When you do get the ball it’s difficult to create a lot of scoring opportunities. The last two goals was the result of the team being tired.”

Martin, who had a goal and two assists and now has four goals and a team-high eight assists in this, the final season of her career [she has elected not to play college soccer], had a hand in both of those goals.

The midfielder made it 3-0 at the 7:19 mark of the second half when she blasted home a 20-yard shot from just outside the top of the penalty area. Junior Sarrah Ludwig got the assist, working against two defenders to dig out a loose ball along the end line on the left side of the box before sending a pinpoint pass to Martin.

Martin then set up the last goal with 3:13 left with another in-swinging corner kick. The Hilltoppers knocked this one away from the goal mouth but the ball went straight to Brittany Dietz. Dietz, who had just checked into the game, buried a 12-yard shot to finish the scoring.

“We gave up a couple goals off of the set pieces. That affected us,” Kusmierz said.
“[Martin] was tough with those crosses. They were driven balls three or four yards in front of the goal. They’re very tough to defend, especially when you have an obvious size disadvantage, and that cost us a couple of goals today.”

Bronke certainly can’t complain about Martin’s accuracy from the corner.

“We practice corner kicks every practice so she should know how to place those by now,” Bronke said with a laugh. “She has really good placement on the ball and it’s just really good when we’re able to finish it.”

“We’ve been practicing corners and I’m used to our field so I think that helps a little bit,” Martin said modestly. “We passed it around really well.”

That was a key against the Hilltoppers, who played only two forwards.

“We saw that they were packing it in on us - they were playing only two up top - and I thought we played really well,” Downers South coach Barry Jacobson said. “I thought our midfield did a really nice job controlling the tempo of the game.

“And when [West] did get it, [Molly Abromitis and Katie Watt] are nice players and I thought Jess [Pikul] and Kimmy [Grimmer] did a great job in the back of shutting them down.

I thought Bronke had a great game and Martin and Dietz controlled the tempo of the game. We told them we need to spread them out and get one-on-ones and corner kicks.”

Controlling the tempo was something the Mustangs were unable to do against Neuqua Valley, which handed them their first defeat of the season, 2-1, last Saturday. But Downers South proved it has learned quickly from that loss.

“We were upset with the Neuqua game,” Bronke said. “We thought we could have done better, but from here on out we’re going to try harder at practice and just keep working hard trying to get some more wins. [Our record] is pretty good so far but we know we want to improve on a bunch of stuff.”

“It was a tough loss but we just want to get better from it,” Martin concurred. “We don’t want to hang our heads on it. We just want to learn from it, learn what we did wrong and fix that.”

The Mustangs know they have the talent to do so and Kujawa said everyone is on the same page.

“I think our team chemistry is better this year,” Kujawa said. “We’ve just been moving the ball well and working together and as you can see everyone is taking shots on goal and everyone’s scoring, so it’s just good teamwork. Everyone is pretty strong and everyone has been working hard and there’s really no weak spots.”

Cara Doogan and Lori Niehaus also played well defensively for the Mustangs in front of goalie Amanda Meyers, who had to make only one save in recording South’s second straight shutout and fourth overall.

South was coming off a 7-0 victory over Proviso East Tuesday in the West Suburban Conference Gold Division opener. Martin, Beshiri, Ludwig, Doogan, Kujawa, Stephanie Zurales and Nicole Janowiak all scored for the Mustangs. Zurales added three assists, while Kujawa, Lauren Tusek, Rachel Ruggiero and Emily Wauer each had one and Meyers and Katelyn Laraia combined for the shutout.

Despite the loss, Glenbard West did not lack for bright spots. Kusmierz was especially pleased with the play of freshman fullback Alyssa Cantore, who drew the unenviable assignment of stopping the Illinois State-bound Kujawa.

“I was really happy with the performance of Alyssa Cantore,” Kusmierz said. “I think during the second half she did an excellent job on Keri Kujawa. She basically didn’t allow her to score any goals when Keri was playing on the right side midfield. In the first half, [Kujawa] went in and got a goal, [but] she was limited to very few scoring opportunities.

“I think being a freshman…that just shows Alyssa’s versatility and I think she did an excellent job today on one of the top players.”