Girls Soccer: Grants wins Grayslake Central Invite on tiebreaker
| Rob Dicker~Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 28, 2012 9:21PM
The championship trophy went home with Grant, courtesy of a tiebreaker after the champs, Waukegan and Grayslake Central all finished 2-1 in the four-team, round-robin Grayslake Central Invitational.
But despite going home empty-handed, it still was a feel-good Wednesday for Waukegan and Grayslake — the teams that won their matches.
Waukegan beat Round Lake in PKs after the teams struggled to a scoreless tie in 80 minutes of play.
Grayslake Central also prevailed in PKs after the Rams and Grant played to a 1-1 draw.
The week was a learning experience for Waukegan’s young team.
The Bulldogs did not score a goal during 240 minutes of soccer, but won a pair of shootouts.
Sophomore keeper Ita Montano had five saves, and made one key stop in the shootout. Two other Round Lake shots were off frame.
Dulce Dominguez, Paloma Guijarro and freshman Jasmin Acosta scored for Waukegan, and after Round Lake’s final shot missed, the Bulldog players mobbed their keeper.
“It feels pretty good,” Montano said about coming up big in shootouts two days in a row. “I know my mom is cheering for me. It’s good to know people have confidence in me.”
Waukegan coach Jose Fernandez knows his team needs offensive production to succeed.
“It was a good game. I think we should have had one or two goals in regulation, but we’ll take the PKs for a win,” he said.
“The girls started connecting more today. They’re building that confidence and realizing they do have the skills; all they have to do is work at them. I think they’re getting there now. We’re pretty happy with the result.”
In the other game, Skyler Jessop was the hero for Grayslake.
Her goal in the 49th minute offset a tally by Grant’s Marissa Allen in the first half.
Then, in the shootout, Jessop scored, and also assumed the keeper position and backstopped a 4-2 PK win.
“Skyler is just a phenomenal athlete. She has great size (5-10), and she’s intimidating in the net,” said Rams coach Mike McCaulou. “I think you saw that with the shots they put wide. We’ve done it before. Back before (alum) Kat Dickson was our goalie, we used to put Megan LeBaron in goal in those situations. She was a basketball player too.”
Grant coach Mike Kennedy was disappointed with the way his team played on Wednesday.
“We won two out of three, but we let one get away here,” he said. “In the second half, I barely even saw us. Offensively we came into the game wanting to keep our shape up front. Our first line of defense is our offense, and in the second half we didn’t do a good enough job.”
© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Comments Click here to view or make a comment