McCabe haunts Glenwood again in a shootout

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By Gary Larsen

Mother Nature’s vendetta against high school soccer continued on Saturday, but she couldn’t stop a gutsy comeback from Prospect and a ridiculous shootout performance by goalkeeper Megan McCabe.

You’ve never seen more smiles plastered on muddier faces than the Knights showed after their 2-1 win over Glenwood on their muddy, wet, frozen home field.

Playing down a player against Glenwood and chasing a one-goal deficit for 50 minutes, the Knights tied the game with four minutes remaining on a Sara Helwink goal and then watched McCabe work her magic in a shootout.

The junior keeper was in the zone against Glenwood’s shooters, saving all three of their attempts to secure this year’s team title of Prospect’s 8-team invitational tournament.

“Megan is amazing and I don’t know what we’d do without her,” Helwink said. “Three (saves) in a row? That’s amazing. This happened last year, too. Megan won it all for us.”

The quick and aggressive McCabe made two saves in a shootout win over Glenwood in last year’s title game, and the three she made Saturday were the most she’s ever saved in a shootout. It was a feat that becomes especially impressive considering the mucky condition of the goalmouth and the nasty weather the teams played under.

“The ball was slippery and my shoes were sticking,” McCabe said. “But after the first save you feel really confident, and then I just guess which side they’re going to go to, and I just dive. I really like p-k’s.”

McCabe dove to her right and got a hand on the first shootout attempt, dove left to swat the second off the frame, and made a sliding kick save on the third. Lauren MacNab, Lexi Phillips, and Megan Hood all converted their shootout attempts to help secure the comeback win.

That the Knights were even able to get to a shootout was surprising. Prospect went down a player 15 minutes into the game, when a Knights’ field player reached up with her hand and stopped a Glenwood shot taken from point blank range, set up by a corner kick.

Glenwood’s Abby Juhlin converted the penalty kick and the Knights were forced to play 10-on-11 for the rest of the game.

“I was really impressed, especially after we went down a player early in the match,” Prospect coach Tom Froats said. “We kind of hung in there, hung in there, and I thought we picked up the level of our game towards the end of the first half.

“We were creating a little bit of possession in their half and doing some nice things. We adjusted, numbers-wise, and got some people on the end of a few good crosses.”

Defenders Taylor Smith, Adriane Falagario, and Kelly Ziegenfuss stayed rock-solid the rest of the way in front of McCabe, who cleanly fielded shots taken mainly from distance the rest of the way.

“Adriane started as a mid this season before she moved back, and I really like our defense this season,” McCabe said. “It’s been very consistent.”

Froats also sees evolution in a positive direction for his girls in back, who have five shutouts in 10 games thus far.

“It’s a little bit of a rollercoaster but they’re starting to sort it out, being a little bit more aggressive, and we’ve done pretty well defensively,” Froats said. “There’s only been a match or two where I wasn’t super-pleased with our defensive effort.”

Offensively, Agnes Stankiewicz, Caroline Aubry, and Helwink made their presence in the central midfield felt throughout the second half, and freshman Elena Cukurs fought tooth-and-nail in the final third.

“(Cukurs) is battling and working hard for us, and I was proud of the entire team,” Froats said. “We had to get pretty aggressive there for the last ten minutes or so, and had to take some risks, and we were rewarded with that goal.

“And in the past, Agnes has played a lot of defense and now we’re asking her to think offensively. It’s coming slowly for her, but I think it’s definitely coming, as you saw from her today.”

Cukurs set up the game’s tying goal, taking a feed from midfield and breaking up the right side before crossing a ball to Helwink. The junior got onto the ball near the far post, eight yards out, and let fly with little more than four minutes left in the game.

“The net got big and it was a power shot, which I probably shouldn’t have done, but it worked out,” Helwink said. “I’m glad I got a second chance because I missed a cross before that. I just didn’t see it coming so I had to get to that one.

“I was really glad we were able to bring it back after being down a player. Once that (penalty kick) went in, it made us want to play harder. We had so much more urgency after that, and we really wanted it.”

The Knights reached the title game with a 3-0 win over Wauconda on Friday and a 4-0 win over Rockford Lutheran on Saturday morning. The Knights have scored 16 goals in 10 games and given up six, and been on the losing end of three 1-0 games.

The attack is a work in progress in Mt. Prospect, but the Knights believe they’re getting there.

“We have some pretty talented players and the goals are going to have to come from everybody,” Froats said. “It’ll take hard work and we’ll have to build together as a team, because we don’t have that frontrunner that’s going to beat three people.”

During the key stretch of play for Prospect in the title game’s final 10 minutes on Saturday, the Knights also got solid efforts from MacNab and Caroline Aubry.

“Lauren MacNab, playing outside mid the last ten minutes or so, really did a nice job for us. She was winning some hard-fought one-v-ones on the outside, making sure we were going to get out of the back,” Froats said. “And I thought Caroline Aubry played with her heart and soul at center mid.”