Wolves struggle to finish, fall in PKs in SPC opener

 

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By Bill Scheibe

Good goalkeepers are worth their weight, and height, in gold. In her third year as a varsity starter, Plainfield South junior Taylor Schwebke came up golden with her gloves during overtime Monday.

After making six saves in regulation, Schwebke stood tall against a determined Oswego East barrage in the pair of 10-minute extra sessions, forcing penalty kicks by delivering seven mostly spectacular stops.

That, in and of itself, truly helped.

"There's nothing you can really do to prepare yourself for penalty kicks," Schwebke said afterward with a shrug of her tired shoulders. "I've only been in one of these before in the conference, but mentally I was ready to go. And I do think the more work that I got (in overtime) actually fired me up."

In the Southwest Prairie Conference opener for both teams, a good fire would have been nice as the lights were turned on for the OT and PKs. Schwebke's 13 saves, combined with the game-winning penalty shot by sophomore midfielder Danni Dame, carried the host Cougars to a gutsy 2-1 victory in Joliet.

On an overcast and dreary afternoon, with a brutally cold wind constantly whipping into a frenzy, Plainfield South (5-2-1, 1-0-0) pulled off the John Travolta move and stayed alive as sophomore midfielder Alex Truhlar tallied the tying goal with 4 minutes and 40 seconds to go in the second half.

Despite an up-and-down pace that featured a frustrating kick ball, long ball mixture and a decidedly clutch-and-grab manner, Oswego East (2-3-0, 0-1-0) had taken the 1-0 lead on a post-pinger by sophomore midfielder Sam Lee via a direct kick by sophomore sweeper Anida Phetchanpheng.

However, as the penalty kick portion convened, that goal with 13:03 remaining in the second half and Truhlar's equalizer were placed on the backburner. Schwebke coaxed the Wolves into clanging a shot off the crossbar and a great Dame culminated the PK round with her strike for the decisive 5-4 margin.

It's like a flip of the coin.

"When it comes down to PKs, it's out of your hands," East coach Lauren Anderson agreed. "It's anybody's game at that point. We just didn't play our game – that wasn't soccer. We didn't connect and we couldn't finish, and I mean, that's what it all comes down to. We didn't play our type of game."

"Yeah, I think they had the run of the play in the first half, you could probably say both of the overtimes, and we were on our heels a lot in the overtime," South coach Kevin Allen said. "But give credit to our girls for battling back and playing to the last whistle after they scored. We just didn't give up."

Neither team would give an inch either, leading to a physical, grinding affair that resulted in few scoring opportunities entering the overtime. Schwebke snuffed out several potential chances for East, particularly on pesky runs or crisp crosses by Katie Ross, the Evansville-bound senior forward.

As momentum hung and swung in the balance, freshman goalkeeper Hannah Gargrave (2 saves) preserved the scoreless deadlock for the Wolves by thwarting freshman forward Kailyn Haski from point-blank range with 19:50 left in the second half. The curtain on East's stage seemed to be set.

Then, on a direct kick by Phetchanpheng after Ross was fouled, Ross barely touched the ball at the top of the box. Lee stepped into the space and unleashed a tight, spinning shot that glanced sharply off the short-side right post and bounced into the corner off Schwebke's sprawled back for the 1-0 edge.

"She's always there whenever we need her to be," Phetchanpheng said of Lee. "She's a really good player, she can play well on offense and defense, and she's always following the ball or she's always around the ball. But we also knew that you can never be very confident about having a one-goal lead."

Move over Nostradamus because Phetchanpheng's words predicted the subsequent South rally. Freshman forward Kelsey Pruett slid a diagonal pass toward the streaking Truhlar, who blistered a shot from the circle of the box that ricocheted off the goalkeeper's gloves and underneath the crossbar.

A sigh could be heard miles away.

"I had been looking for a pass up top all game long and I finally found one," Truhlar said with a smile. "We had so many opportunities and we just couldn't put one together. Because they scored, we had to get fired up at the end and we did. We found a pass and I got a beautiful shot over the top of keeper."

"We've been harping on them about playing 40 minutes of every half," Allen said. "The girls fought back and I couldn't be more proud of them. And absolutely, absolutely, Taylor came up huge. The coaches have all the confidence in the world in her, so do the girls, and you couldn't ask for anything better."

In reality, East should have fared better in the OT. Schwebke's scissor-kick save on Ross with 47.7 seconds left in the first session belonged on ESPN's SportsCenter. A shot by sophomore Brittany Brewer off Phetchanpheng's cross and Lee's rebound in the second OT also qualified for the wow factor.

"That's what we're struggling with right now," Anderson said. "We're getting plenty of opportunities to score. We don't have anyone who's finishing. We need to find that goal-scoring threat and that will come. I know it's still early in the season, but we need to find it quickly before it becomes too late."

Speaking of late, the PK shootout advanced into the fourth round before the drama peaked at a 3-3 tie. Lee, junior midfielder Carli Schlaker and Brewer converted for East, while Truhlar, sophomore defender Abby Banks and freshman sweeper Kylie Krstinich hit the back of the net for South.

Facing Schwebke, the Wolves caromed the first shot of Round 4 off the crossbar. Facing Phetchanpheng, who played goalkeeper for the PKs, Haski went underneath the crossbar for a 4-3 lead. Phetchanpheng began Round 5, nailing a shot into the lower-right corner, but Dame responded into the lower left.

"I love this team and I like the challenge," Dame said. "I like the pressure and I like the competition. I wanted to take the shot and I was ready. I don't think we have ever beaten Oswego East before, not the girls on this team, so this game meant a lot to us. We were confident we could get the job done."

And like Schwebke, it was a job well done.