Grens done in by strong second half from Hersey

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By Mike Garofola

Four-time division champion Hersey made a convincing start to the 2011 season on Wednesday evening in Elk Grove.

The visiting Huskies used a 2-goal explosion within 4 minutes to do in the home side Grens (2-1-0, 0-1-0), with both teams looking to be the first to score a takedown in what looks to be an exciting fight to the finish in the MSL East this spring.

In the final week of the regular season last year, the Huskies held on for a 1-0 victory to send them into the annual MSL Soccer Cup for the third consecutive time, while turning the thoughts of the Grens and head coach Dan Klaus immediately towards preparation of the upcoming postseason tournament - and putting this year's rematch on the backburner.

"We all knew how much we wanted to win this match with Hersey, who is still the team to beat in the division, and someone we obviously had to go through in order to get ourselves into a position to advance into the (Cup) later on," began Klaus.

"Who knows if this will actually decide the championship. Likely not, but we sure could have taken an early lead in that race, and built some momentum off of a victory tonight."

Against the run of play, the Grens’ 2010 leading scorer, Michelle Calmeyn gave her side the early lead when she came out of a scrum in close with the ball - and steered in a shot from 10 yards.

After that, the Grens' backline of Katie Naughton, Emily Wary, Lindsey Vaccarino and Sarah Stram, one of the strength's of the club this season, went to work to hold down a now motivated Hersey (5-0-0, 1-0-0) club. The Huskies looked to fight back in the first 5 minutes after the Calmeyn goal, to let the Grens know they were in for a match.

"Elk Grove has a lot of offensive weapons, beginning with Calmeyn up top, so one of the things we didn't want to do was let her, especially, start to get some space in our end, and either get shots on frame, or get some of her teammates too involved in the attack," began Hersey head coach Brad Abel.

"We were a little unorganized in the early going, and it showed as Elk Grove pretty much stayed in our (end) - but after Calmeyn's goal, I thought we tightened things up in the back, got ourselves back in the match before halftime, and had a pretty good night going forward and keeping some pressure on them."

The Huskies drew even when they made something out of nothing. A throw at the far side from Maeva Waterman came back to her, and she sent it to the near post with Grens keeper Melissa Solorio off her line. Wary, tracking back to mark the Huskies’ Casey Weyhrich, unfortunately redirected the ball past Solorio and into the back of the Grens net at 23 minutes.

"That goal was all my fault," said Wary, although Klaus was quick to instead lay the blame on the fact that his team got caught ball-watching on the play.

Just after the Huskies' drew even, Vaccarino sent in a looping long ball in which Hersey keeper Erin Reiff was sent sprawling near the 6 - but the ever present Hersey defense, water-tight for most of the match, cleared the dangerous ball out of the area to keep things at 1-1.

Just before the break, Naughton, who on several occasions, came forward into the attack on the carry, initiated an eventual save from Reiff, who stopped Nikki Zaino after Calmeyn provided the helper to her freshmen teammate.

"It wasn't a bad first half from us, but right now, we're lacking that extra player to be more dynamic in the attack to either play off of Michelle (Calmeyn) or just be more dangerous in our opponent's end to force the defense to mark more closely, and open more space for us in the box," offered Klaus.

Kelly Naughton, who the Grens' were unable to get the ball to with any regularity on the outside, had a go at 53 minutes which went over the bar, and minutes later Megan Boyle stunned the home side with a marvelous goal to put the Huskies up for good.

After a nifty steal near the midline, Boyle hit a wicked left-footed cracker from 35 yards that curled into the net to give the visitors the 2-1 lead at 57 minutes.

“I think at that point, everyone thought we would pack (it) in and try to hold on - which we're known to do,” Abel said. “But we kept pushing the attack, which I really feel helped us keep the pressure on Elk Grove and force them to be a little more defensive than they would have liked.”

This tactical move apparently paid off 6 minutes later, when Weyhrich followed a shot by Lauren Gierman, which bounded off the gloves of Solorio and straight to the onrushing sophomore who easily thumped in her attempt to give the Huskies a 2-goal advantage.

Klaus would go with three up top afterwards, but except for a well-struck free kick off the woodwork by Naughton in the 77th minute, the Grens were unable to generate much at all to worry the Huskies' faithful and challenge its keeper Reiff, who last season was one of Abel's best field players off the bench.

"We could have played a lot better tonight," admitted a disappointed Wary. "After last season’s loss we had something to prove and play for against Hersey, but we just didn't play like we know we all can."

For now, Klaus will gather his club and have them focus on what's ahead, including a match with division rival Wheeling, then Cary-Grove, on Saturday in a non-conference game against a very nice side from the Fox Valley Conference.

"We're only four matches into the season, and we know we'll get better as we play and train more," began Klaus.

"But we need to also get our work rate up when we do play, and I am hoping a result like this will wake everyone up a little bit, and cause them to (all) find our focus as we go forward."