Banged-up Grens fall 1-0 at Barrington
By Gary Larsen

 

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Barrington’s Elli Ackermann recently located her shot, and the one she located on Wednesday was the only one that mattered.

The sophomore had a beauty of a strike on a ball from 20 yards out in the first half of the Fillies’ game against visiting Elk Grove, a low drive inside the far post that stood up as the game’s lone goal.

“I’ve been struggling with my shots this whole season so it was nice to finally finish one,” Ackermann said. “I was sending shots high and I stayed down on the ball tonight. But it was a team effort. Once Mia (Calamari) got hurt, we wanted to win for her. We worked together as a family.”

A dark cloud hung over the win for the Fillies, as one of their key players in central midfielder Calamari went down to a leg injury and had to be helped from the field. She did not return.

“If a win ever felt like a loss, it’s this one for me,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “I’m really down.  My heart is with Mia right now.”

Wednesday’s game between Barrington (8-3, 7-0 in MSL play) and Elk Grove (8-2-1, 3-1-1) was typical of the hard-fought, physical contests that are filling the conference schedule in a particularly solid Mid Suburban League this year.

“I thought it was a great game by both teams. Both teams battled,” Elk Grove Dan Klaus said. “They had two or three more good chances than us, but I didn’t think either way there were a ton of great chances in the game.”

Calamari gave it a go from distance early in the contest and Barrington had a pair of corner kicks in the game’s first ten minutes. Elk Grove sophomore keeper Melissa Solorio handled Calamari’s shot and both corners were cleared out.

Elk Grove’s Sarah Stram sent a shot spinning towards Fillies keeper Hannah Luedtke that the freshman handled at 14 minutes, and Ackermann intercepted a pass one minute later in the final third and buried it .

“Elli in practice yesterday was hitting the ball very, very well and in pre-game she was hitting it very, very well,” Stengren said. “She’s been working on her game and she has improved.”

Barrington lost Calamari at the 18-minute mark and from that minute forward, the perpetually unsung Sara Condon picked up her game, playing with a quickness and purpose that helped Barrington to the win.

“I don’t think Sara gets enough credit for what she does,” Barrington junior striker Molly Pfeiffer said. “She’s a hard worker, gets forward and back, and sets a great example by her actions. She’s the playmaker, I think. She moves the ball from side to side, and finds the pass to find the pass to score.”

Elk Grove’s Kentucky-bound Kelli Hubly sent a through ball ahead to Kelly Naughton but Luedtke left her line and beat Naughton to the ball at 32 minutes, and the Grens’ Nikki Zaino dribbled into the box and sent a shot wide at 37 minutes from 18 yards out.

Hubly saw spot action due to a tweaked hamstring, but Klaus has a band of warriors on his hands this season, a roster of 15 players currently battling injuries that played with grit for 80 minutes on Barrington’s expansive pitch.

“I’m proud of the effort we gave. We’re a little dinged up and I’m so proud of our girls. They’re playing with guts,” Klaus said. “Kelly Regan was unbelievable at center mid today. As usual, our back line was solid, and we’re trying to patch it together elsewhere.”

Grenadiers sophomore Kelly Regan launched her five-foot-nothin’ body after every ball in the air she could get to on Wednesday.

“They were good at pressuring and going up for headers,” Regan said of Barrington. “I know I have to win a lot of balls in the air and work as hard as I can. I just try to position myself for the ball and have no fear.

“We knew Barrington was good because they beat Conant 3-0. We just had to come out here and give it our best. We don’t have a lot of subs but we played our best.”

Barrington opened the second half with a corner kick that was headed high. The Fillies sent in a free kick at 63 minutes, the ball hit the carpet and was attacked from all directions in a crowd before being cleared out.

Kelly Naughton sent a shot from distance wide at 64 minutes and with his side chasing a goal Klaus moved Notre Dame-bound defender Katie Naughton up to midfield for the rest of the contest. Pfeiffer went wide after a Samantha Frank corner kick at 67 minutes and the game’s best, last chance at a goal came at 75 minutes when Pfeiffer crossed to Aimee Pierce, who hit a great chance just wide.

Pierce played solid soccer throughout the contest,  Jenna Szczesny and Ackermann were prominent, and the Fillies got quality time at midfield after Calamari went down from Ann Burnidge, Alex Avers, Megan Fox, and Pfeiffer, once she dropped back to bolster the midfield late in the second half.

Luedtke and her starting back line of Emily Morin, Katheryn Avedon, Abby Taplett, and Samantha Frank also posted their fifth consecutive shutout and their eighth on the season with Wednesday's win.

Stengren applauded the effort Elk Grove put into the game but would have liked to see a bit more of it from his girls on Wednesday, in their first game played since an emotion-filled 3-0 win on Friday over Conant.

“I thought we lacked some enthusiasm tonight. We just lacked that ‘let’s get after it’ and that’s what we rely on – even more so now, moving forward,” he said. “It’s hard to play two emotional games back-to-back, so it was more about getting the job done.”