Huskies start flat against Gators and can't recover

By Dan Santaromita

Oak Park-River Forest came out timid against Crystal Lake South Friday night in Northbrook and it cost them.

The Huskies gave up an early goal before adapting to the quality of play from CL South and couldn't make the comeback.

OPRF ultimately fell 2-0 in its opening match in the two-day Glenbrook Cup.

"We didn't come to play the first ten minutes," OPRF coach Paul Wright said. "We got scared, you know, they're on the verge of being ranked.

"They knocked off Lyons 2-0, our main opponent all year. We came out a little timid."

In the seventh minute, CL South junior Vivian Qian made a great cross from the left to Kali Loescher, who calmly settled the ball, turned, fired and scored with a high shot.

CL South coach Brian Allen said his Gators played fantastic.

"I couldn't have asked for more," Allen said. "They played a little more relaxed because we got away from conference and away from (the Pepsi Showdown) and they just went out and performed and they performed very well."

Despite going down an early goal, the Huskies (6-4-1) played better as the match continued.

The play was mostly even and the Huskies even had a great chance to tie the match, but a shot at an open goal went just high.

"We realized probably the last ten minutes of the first half that 'hey you know what? we can play with these guys,'" Wright said.

"We felt good going into the half. We played pretty much even game the first 20 minutes of the second half. We had some chances, they were nervous a little bit. I think the only thing that changed was our confidence."

In the 51st minute the Gators scored a second goal after a great possession set up the score.

Junior Karli Schumaker laid off the ball perfectly for Qian, who ripped a shot straight at Huskie goalie Katie Oldach (7 saves), who couldn't handle the wet ball.

Huskie sweeper Rennata Voci was a force at the back and kept her team in the match.

Every team in the tournament has two 60-minute matches Saturday to finish group play with the group winners advancing to the semifinals. Each team in the semis is guaranteed two more matches.

"It's great, we got a lot of games," Wright said. "We'll get some kids in and try mixing it up these next games.

"Try some different stuff before we go into the meat of our conference and then we got playoffs coming up in a couple weeks so we'll try a few things out and make the best of the situation."

OPRF plays Lake Forest Academy at 10:45 a.m. and Kenosha Bradford at 3:45 p.m.

The semifinals will be a 5:45 with the final and third place match immediately after. Kenosha Bradford beat Lake Forest Academy 1-0 in the other Group D match Friday.

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