Rams attack well but can't find go-ahead goal vs. Fenton

 

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By Gary Larsen

Glenbard East central defender Nicole Darga may be the best eyewitness to the exact area of improvement her squad has undergone since last season.

“Last year it felt like we were always kicking the ball out and it was always coming right back. It was like pinball,” Darga said. “This year we have an attack and to see the improvement between this year and last year has been phenomenal.”

The Rams’ attack produced plenty of dangerous chances throughout Saturday’s game against Fenton. And when Erin Mrazek scored off a Jessie Grumstrup feed just five minutes into the game, a multiple-goal game seemed more than possible to the Rams’ faithful.

But even though Mrazek and Lindsey Paganucci took turns putting shots on frame in the run of play, and junior Jessie Grumstrup sent a good handful of dangerous free kicks in on net throughout the second half, the Rams (2-1-2) had to settle for a 1-1 tie in Bensenville.

“Scoring is what it comes down to,” Mrazek said. “We’re good at crossing and everything, and we just need to finish. We’re definitely creating more this year. Now we need to start finishing on more of our chances.”

Fenton goalkeeper Katherine McEvoy was the main obstacle to the Rams finishing a second time, tipping shots over the crossbar and handling everything else a visiting side with the wind at its back had to offer in the second half.

But moving forward, Rams coach Kent Overbey knows that his side will need to find a way.

“We felt like we should have buried about five of those in the second half, but (McEvoy) played a great game,” Overbey said. “We had some great chances.

“We have to take advantage of those chances. We’re going into DVC play on Tuesday against Wheaton Warrenville South and we’re not going to get fifteen chances. We just need to be more efficient in the offensive third.”

A few minutes after Mrazek’s goal, Paganucci nearly went in alone on net on a breakaway. A Bison defender tracked back to thwart Paganucci’s shot attempt, but the Rams’ junior captain showed all game long that she’s anything but one-dimensional.

“Lindsey Paganucci played up top and she’s been an outside mid for us, and a lock-down defender for us,” Overbey said. “She had a couple good chances today.”

Fenton’s best attacking spell came during the final ten minutes before halftime, and it earned the Bison a game-tying goal. A trio of successive Fenton corner kicks began in the 31st minute and culminated in the Bison’s goal, the reason for which was easy for the Rams to trace.

“We don’t want the ball to hit the ground on corner kicks and that was unlucky for us,” Varga said. “I just saw like, forty white (uniforms) come in and they got a goal on a ball that should have been cleared.”

“Defensively we did a good job,” Overbey said. “The only real chances they had were those three corners and we didn’t clear the ball out like we should have. But besides that we felt like we played strong defensively.

“The last ten minutes of the first half has been a weakness for us the last two years and that’s when (Fenton) had their best run at us today. We’re trying to finish halves strong and we didn’t do that.”

Paganucci whipped a head shot wide of the post just before halftime, and McEvoy saved Mrazek from close range early in the second half. Fenton’s best attacking spurt behind them, the Rams made the most of a wind at their backs in the second half.
 
McEvoy tipped a Mrazek shot over the crossbar, Gabriella Roth headed a ball just wide on a Mrazek serve, and Grumstrup blistered another free kick that McEvoy fielded near the post – all before the halfway mark of the second half.

A Rams serve to the goalmouth at 60 minutes resulted in a wild scrum on the goal line, but as she did throughout the second half, McEvoy came away with the ball.

“When we were able to lock their players down we started to string some passes together,” Overbey said. “We started to get by them and unfortunately just couldn’t get on the end of them.”

Overbey has asked center mids Mrazek and Grumstrup to play more physically in the middle this year, and a few yellow cards issued showed that neither team was backing down from playing hard, physical soccer.

That physicality helped spark the Rams’ attack, and there was another factor at play that helped the Rams find quality shots on net.

“Talking,” Mrazek said. “Before, we had talking issues but we’re getting a lot better at communicating this year and we need to keep getting better at talking. We talked a lot more in the second half today.”

Defenders Darga and Meghan Mumenthal also stood out on Saturday, while Veronica Fairbairn played another solid game in net, particularly in a first half that saw wind-aided McEvoy punts falling from the sky and landing on the Rams’ side of midfield.

“(McEvoy’s) punts were really long and they kept bouncing high on our half, and in a game with this much wind and sun made those hard to handle,” said Darga, who pointed out another key to the improved connection between the Rams’ back line and their attack.

“As a defender you just have to make sure you use your outside mids,” Darga said. “Getting stuck in the middle last year, I’d get into a lot of battles and have to worry about fouling people, so this year I want to use our outside mids as much as I can.”