Knights suffer first defeat of season at Elk Grove

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By Dan Santaromita

There’s nothing like conceding an early goal to take the wind out of your sails.

Prospect did just that at Elk Grove Wednesday night and wasn't able to fully recover.

The Knights dropped the match, which was their Mid Suburban League opener, by a 3-1 score.

Elk Grove sophomore forward Kelli Hubly had the early breakthrough just eight minutes into the match.

Prospect was unable to clear an Elk Grove corner and the ball found its way to Hubly, who finished from close range.

"It was big for us to get on the board early," Elk Grove coach Dan Klaus said. "It wasn't a pretty goal, but it was a battle in the box and we finally put it home."

Sophomore defender Katie Naughton doubled the Grenadier lead in the 23rd minute on a pretty free kick from about 30 yards out that went just over the outstretched arms of Prospect senior goalie Maureen O'Keefe (6 saves).

Despite the 2-0 score, the match seemed to be mostly even. Prospect (2-1) finally had something to reflect that on the scoreboard in the 47th minute.

Knight sophomore Lizzie Robinson was able to catch Elk Grove senior keeper Nicole Rieci (5 saves) out of position. Robinson launched a shot from distance and hit it over Rieci.

"I thought we fought back and had nice energy in the second half at the start." Prospect coach Tom Froats said. "That's what we talked about, pick it up. You know, get one goal and then it's anybody's game."

Towards the end of the match Prospect was trying to push forward to get the tying goal and Elk Grove was able to create some good counterattacks.

With less than two minutes to play, one of those counters resulted in the finishing goal.

O'Keefe punched out a Grenadier cross, but it went straight to Elk Grove junior Carin Fearing, who headed it home to make it 3-1.

"As we were pressing I think they kind of capitalized on us pushing up a little bit too much offensively," Froats said. "Their forwards worked us hard tonight.

"They should be complimented. It was tough for us to kind of hold them in check early in the match, but at the end I thought we did a nice enough job."

The match was Prospect's first in 14 days since it opened the season with shutout wins over Plainfield Central and Niles West.

"(The layoff) certainly would play into it a little bit," Froats said. "Certainly not the difference I think, but we look to play better in the future.

"Tip my hat to Elk Grove tonight. They did enough to get the job done and every Mid Suburban League match is going to be a hard fought match."

Klaus echoed Froats' assessment of the MSL, saying the league is strong top to bottom.

Knight Sophomore Kelli Iovino created a few good chances and combined well with sophomore forward Jessie Pretrovski, who finished with four shots.

"I think at times we could have played a little smarter, but I can't fault them at all for their effort," Froats said.

"I think we had a couple of chances early in the match that we didn't capitalize on that maybe would have made a little bit of a difference. I thought at the end we were working hard, but we just weren't able to click and get the ball in at those opportune times."

The Knights will host Fremd Monday at 6:30p.m. before visiting Hersey Wednesday, April 7, at 6p.m.