Mustangs fall to unbeaten Sandburg

By Matt LeCren

Bob Seger’s old hit song “Against the Wind” was written about his days as a high school cross-country runner, but it easily could have applied to Downers Grove South’s match against Sandburg on Thursday night.

With a 30-mile-per hour gale blowing out of the south, both sides knew the Naperville Invitational quarterfinal match at Naperville Central would be decided by how they handled the conditions.

Unfortunately for the Mustangs, Sandburg star midfielder Allie Osoba isn’t bothered by wind. She blasted a 22-yard free kick into the teeth of the wind past a defensive wall and the outstretched hands of Mustangs goalie Amanda Meyers to score the decisive goal as the Eagles (13-0-1) advanced to the semifinals with a 2-1 victory.

Osoba’s goal, which came with 3:44 left in the first half, gave Sandburg a 2-0 lead. Both of its goals were scored against the wind.

“I just tried to shoot it as hard as I could,” Osoba said. “I tried to go to the low corner because I saw an opening where the wall was not blocking it. We actually practiced that exact shot at practice yesterday, which is kind of weird.

“We knew we were going against the wind [in the first half]. We were trying to get a few goals when we were against the wind so it would be easier with the wind.”

The Mustangs (11-3-2) outshot the Eagles 14-9 overall and held an 11-4 edge in the first half. But failure to clear a bouncing ball just outside the top of the penalty area put South behind when Sandburg freshman Paige Bendell corralled the ball and lofted it over a charging Meyers for a 1-0 lead with 15:28 left in the opening half.

“That was a good free kick on [Osoba’s] part,” Downers South sweeper Jessica Pikul said. “We practice those, too. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get ours on the goal, but we’ll have to practice more on those so we can hit them like her.”

The Mustangs did have several chances with the wind at their backs. Jessica Bronke’s 55-yard free kick in the eighth minute bounced over Sandburg goalie Victoria Kappel’s head and skimmed the top of the crossbar. Then two minutes after Bendell’s goal, Flo Beshiri missed high on a 33-yard free kick.

Beshiri used the wind to her advantage just before halftime. After Kappel deflected a 35-yard free kick by Lauren Rusk over the bar, Beshiri launched a corner kick from the right side that was blown into the crossbar before Sandburg’s Sara Krusenoski kicked the ball out of harm’s way.

But Beshiri got another chance at a corner kick with 22 seconds to play before intermission and this time she bent it in off Kappel’s hands to cut the gap to 2-1. It was just the third goal given up by Sandburg this year.

“They were a good team but the wind played a big factor in their goal,” Osoba said. “That kind of hurt us going into halftime with them scoring with 20 seconds left. We came out a little weak [in the second half] but we got it back and then we possessed it.”

But not before the Mustangs nearly tied it. Just 25 seconds after intermission, Keri Kujawa had a breakaway but sent her shot rolling just wide of the left post. Kujawa, South’s leading scorer, also just missed high on a 13-yard volley with 13:55 remaining.

“I thought it was in,” Pikul said of the breakaway miss. “I was getting to ready to start cheering. We have to work on [converting opportunities] a little bit more, because if we got those two goals we would be winning.”

Playing from behind against the wind proved to be too much of a struggle for the Mustangs.

“It’s harder to go against the wind,” Pikul said. “We didn’t have it in the second half and unfortunately we were losing when it came to the second half. I think the defense, especially near the end of the second half, lost composure a little bit.

“We were all just getting tired with the wind and not marking up as well and when you do that and you’re chasing the ball you get tired. First half that didn’t really happen but more so in the second half because they were playing it a lot more on or side of the field.”

Despite that, Mustangs coach Barry Jacobson thought his squad got better as the game went on against the Eagles, who are ranked No. 1 by the Chicago Sun-Times.

“First half we looked a little tentative,” he said. “I thought we played a better second half and I was happy about that. We came out and played hard.”