Knights drop home game 1-0 to Fremd
By Dan Santaromita

 

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It had been over four hours of play since Fremd last scored so the Vikings’ strange reaction to ending the drought could almost be expected.

Kira Heggeland scored in the 15th minute against host Prospect to put Fremd back on the score sheet, but her teammates didn’t respond with much initial celebration.

“They just kind of stared at it in the net like it didn’t happen,” Heggeland said, “but I mean it was a goal and a goal is a goal and whatever puts it on the scoreboard.”

Heggeland redirected a deflected cross towards goal, with help from a miscommunication in the Prospect defense, and the ball slowly rolled into the goal. Fremd had lost three straight 1-0 results and five total on the season so they will take goals however they come at this point.

Prospect (3-4-2, 2-4-1 Mid Suburban League) had plenty of chances to equalize, but the Viking (3-5, 2-4) defense did enough to hold the lead and get back in the win column.

Of course, the final result isn’t always indicative of a team’s performance and Fremd coach Steve Keller thought the Vikings played better in recent defeats.

“I think from the last two games we took a step down today,” Keller said. “We didn’t play particularly well. We weren’t very smart defensively, but we got the result.”

The Knights found openings on the attack and had the first shot of the game when Sara Helwink broke through the defense, but shot wide in the second minute.

Fremd nearly converted a Jessa Rizzo corner in the eighth minute, but Kelly Ziegenfuss cleared the ball off the line.

After Heggeland’s goal the game was full of missed chances and great play from both keepers. Shannon Norris (7 saves) made some stellar stops for the shutout and Megan McCabe (12 saves) had a few quality saves of her own in the losing effort.

Norris denied a sharp shot from Jesse Petrovski at the near post just before the half hour mark and made a leaping save on a Mary Rose Pettenuzzo free kick in the second half.

Prospect has allowed just three goals in its last four games, but only has one win during that period.

“I think that in the beginning we started off really slow and at the end of the first half we got a lot of chances, but we just couldn’t finish,” senior defensive midfielder Taylor Smith said. “This is what our problem has been for the whole season, just putting it in the back of the net, but the effort was there.

“It’s frustrating. We get in our own heads thinking that we can’t score, but we’re all capable. We all have the abilities to. Kelly Iovino up top has amazing skill to shoot the ball, but it’s tough.

Iovino was at the heart of many of Prospect’s attacks, combining with Petrovski regularly. She was sent through the defense in the second half and dribbled around Norris only to be jostled off the ball by the last defender

The tying goal seemed sure to come after the Knights upped the pressure and created a slew of chances within just a few minutes around the hour mark. Iovino launched a through ball ahead of Elena Cukurs, but Norris won the race for the ball just outside the box. Not even a minute later Iovino hit Petrovski wide open in the box, but her shot missed over the bar.

“I was impressed by us because I don’t think that energy was there in the first half and we brought it in the second half,” Prospect coach Tom Froats said. “Energy enough to create those opportunities that we were not burying so we just have to continue to work on the finishing part inside the final third and if we keep preserving it will come eventually.”

Entering Wednesday’s game it was Fremd that was saying the goals would come. The Vikings now hope the one goal broke the ice and can start a better scoring run.

“We were in a deadlock and I think we just needed to break out of it so once we got the one we picked up our pace throughout the second half,” Heggeland said. “I think we were all stuck in our heads. We couldn’t break out of it and once we broke it out of we’ll be good for the rest of the season or should be.”

Keller lamented the rare openings in the defense, but the Vikings received sparks from attacker Kelsey Beschta and outside mid Tracy Bourgon. Both returned to the lineup after missing time.

“We were certainly fortunate,” Keller said. “They certainly had some chances that easily could have gone in and that’s all we talked about at halftime was defense. People were running free. We were impatient defensively, diving in and it caused us a lot of problems.”

Fremd returns to action Friday against Rolling Meadows.

On the other side Prospect is left wondering what could have been after squandering opportunities. They will try to right the ship at the Knights Invite over the weekend.

“Soccer is sometimes frustrating with the way ends up on the scoreboard, but their goal they took advantage of their opportunity and we had several opportunities that we didn’t finish,” Froats said. “As a result we ended up with a zero on the scoreboard. We can’t rely on the defense every night to keep the score sheet clean. Offensively we have to step up and someone’s gotta make a play for us and we haven’t had that on a consistent basis yet.”