Lello leads Knights to MSL victory over Hawks

By Dan Santaromita

With a young team it takes a while to click on all cylinders.

It also helps to get your senior star back in the fold and playing well again.

Prospect defeated Hoffman Estates 5-0 Monday night in Mt. Prospect and senior Susie Lello sparked the Knights with two goals.

It was Lello's second game back after missing the first four games of the season and she was a threat all game long with dangerous runs at Hawk defenders.

"She is probably the most dangerous player that we have," Prospect coach Tom Froats said.

"And she certainly can carry the ball at defenders and really put a nice, I guess, attack mentality to us which we haven't had in the couple matches without her."

Lello didn't seem to miss a beat and should make the Knights more dangerous going forward.

"I think we have a really good relationship with everyone, so coming back into it was really easy and playing together was really easy with them," she said.

The rest of the Prospect attack was working well, also.

"I think everybody kind of feeds off (Lello)," said Froats, whose squad's next match is at Palatine on Wednesday at 6 p.m..

"You saw not even just her but a couple other girls willing to take on defenders one v. one and I think that kind of grows off of what Susie was doing."

The first half was an endless onslaught on Hawks' goalie Vanessa Daughtery (16 saves), who made some tough saves, but the pressure was simply too much.

Lello got the Knights on the board in the 11th minute when she put away a rebound from sophomore Jessie Petrovski's shot.

In the 32nd minute, junior Lizzie Robinson made a nice cross to sophomore Sara Helwink, who made it 2-0 game.

Not even a minute later, Lello was at it again. She dribbled into the box, almost lost control, but was able to fight off a defender and slot the ball past Daughery to make it 3-0.

The final two goals were also bunched together. Robinson scored number four and three minutes later junior Agnes Stankiewicz scored on a free kick from about 25 yards out.

Sophomore Megan McCabe made two saves to record the shutout for the Knights. Hoffman Estates took its second straight loss and fell to 0-4 in the MSL.

"We took a step in the right direction today in getting a win under our belt," Froats said of the Knights getting their first conference win.

"We've played some tough competition and haven't played well enough to beat them. Today we played well enough to win.

"We're looking for improvement every game and I certainly saw some improvement here today and I think it gives us some nice things to build on for the upcoming games we have."

Prospect (3-3, 1-3 Mid Suburban League) started seven underclassmen Monday and the young team is showing improvement.

"I may have been ambitious in thinking we may have been further along than we are, but they are definitely progressing every game and that's the key so in that way I'm very happy," Froats said.

"Certainly they're young, but I think some of them are beginning to step up and kind of take leadership roles out on the field, which is nice for us to see."

With Lello back in the lineup and in good form, the Knights should be a tough out the rest of the year, but there aren't many breaks in the very competitive MSL.

"I think this game was the first game that we all kind of came together because we were still trying to figure out positions with a fairly overall young team so we've been switching around lately," Lello said.

“In this game we all kind of figured it out and the passing came together and we played to feet a lot so I think it was one of our better games so far."

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