Gators look strong in season opener despite loss

Click here for photos from Monday's game

By Gary Larsen

Ultimately there was only one thing missing for Crystal Lake South in its season opener against Conant.

A finishing touch.

The Gators lost 2-0 in Elk Grove on Monday but coach Brian Allen got a strong effort from his side throughout.

“I was pleased with what I saw,” he said. “It’s an opening game against a solid opponent and we needed to see where we’re at. For the first game we’re disappointed with the result, but we’ll take the effort, absolutely.

Gators senior Karley Mecko was similarly happy with the way her squad competed on Monday.

“We knew how good (Conant) was coming into this game. We wanted to use this game to sort of put us in a position to see what we could do,” Mecko said. “It was a good game to assess ourselves and see where we need to improve, and where we can keep up the good work.”

Crystal Lake South applied pressure well through 40 minutes, earning a pair of corner kicks, numerous throw-ins deep in the attacking third, and sending a handful of shots wide of frame.

Vivian Qian and Christina Szocka each sent chances just wide in the first half.

“That was (Szocka’s) first varsity game, and she made some runs and got into some dangerous spots for us,” Allen said.

After each team flirted with finding dangerous scoring chances through 40 minutes, Conant broke the ice just 35 seconds into the second half.

For most of the night, the Gators did a fine job of neutralizing dangerous Conant sophomore Courtney Raetzman, but Raetzman got behind South’s defense and scored just after halftime.

“Courtney (Raetzman) is a phenomenal player and you can’t give her space or time, or she’ll make you pay for it,” Allen said. “It was just a couple of breakdowns in the back, but we’ll clean that up.”

“I thought our backs did a phenomenal job today against one of the best players in the state. For them to control her for the most part, I was pleased to see.”

The Gators’ Mackenzie Taldone nearly knotted the score in the 57th minute, charging onto a cross to the far post, but the shot went just wide.

“I liked what we were tying to do in terms of combinations. We just weren’t able to make that last pass, and we did hit the frame at the end of the game,” Allen said. “The shots were there. We just couldn’t put them on frame.”

Conant put a stamp on the night when Chrissy Rosales took a Raetzman pass and went in alone on net, scoring from 12 yards out in the game’s 68th minute. The Gators hit a post late before settling for a scoreless night.

“We made two costly mistakes, but I’m pleased with what we’ve got. This was a good measuring stick going forward,” Allen said. “We were just a little slow in terms of anticipation. We were reacting a little more than I would have liked to see in terms of anticipating up top with our runs and things like that.”

“But the ideas of where we wanted to go with the ball and what we wanted to do in terms of creativity – it was nice to see them not playing so narrow-minded. We got into a little spurt of playing kick-ball but we were able to balance that by trying to play possession a little bit.”

Mecko was also encouraged by what she saw. “Every girl on this team is strong,” she said. “And our team motto this season is to play for each other. We play for the team.”

Allen sees potential all over the pitch for this year’s squad and anticipates different players stepping up in each early-season game, while building towards playing a complete game.

“If we can put the entire package together, I think we’ll be scary,” he said.

Allen saw plenty of promising signs from his crew on Monday. “Ellen Brunner in the stopper position -- she moved back from defensive mid and she stepped it up,” he said. “And I asked a lot of Ashley Ross today. She’s our main striker but I asked her to play sweeper just to deal with (Raetzman’s) speed, and she did a phenomenal job in the first half before we moved her up top.”

Allen also applauded the play of Kali Loescher and his entire core of outside midfielders on Monday.

The Gators play at Grayslake North on Thursday and play in a home-opener next Tuesday against Johnsburg.