Girls Soccer: Elk Grove rallies to upset Hersey

Updated: April 30, 2012 11:08PM

Elk Grove started the season at 8-0-1 before injuries sidetracked a solid team that lacked depth. But on Monday against Mid-Suburban League East champion No. 5 Hersey the visiting Grenadiers showed that they’re healthy and ready for the looming postseason.

“I wouldn’t want to play them in a regional,” Hersey coach Brad Abel said after Elk Grove won 2-1 over his Huskies. “We can say we came out flat but they made us look flat the entire game.”

With all the game’s scoring coming before halftime, Elk Grove (10-6-1, 5-4-1) saw Kelli Hubly get her 18th goal of the year and Kelly Naughton send a head shot inside the post, on a feed from Ashley Potratz.

Hersey (15-4-2, 8-2) had only given up 11 goals in 20 games heading into Monday’s contest. The Huskies led 1-0 on a Nicole Gierman goal scored from 30 yards out just seven minutes into the game, but Elk Grove was unfazed.

“We’re a confident team,” Naughton said. “Sometimes we’ve had trouble scoring but we know we can, and we did.”

Hubly turned nothing into something when her shot from 30 yards out somehow worked its way through a crowd and spun inside the post, tying the game at 24 minutes. The Grenadiers set up the game-winner with a corner kick six minutes later, when Potratz sent an initial clear back into the mixer and Naughton buried it from six yards out.

The Grens’ back four kept the slate clean from there, with Notre Dame-bound central defender Katie Naughton spending the night at midfield.

“All the girls in back are awesome – (Sarah) Stram, Emily Wary, Jocelyn Potratz, and Lindsey Vaccarino,” Naughton said. “To step up without Katie Naughton back there was awesome to see.”

Hersey’s Lauren Gierman, Casey Weyhrich, Megan Boyle, and Nicole Pietro all provided danger but Elk Grove’s girls in back never surrendered a truly dangerous shot on keeper Melissa Solorio, who handled every long-range shot sent in on her.

“We normally played with four in the back, then we switched to three, and now we’re back to four,” Vaccarino said. “We just connected really well with the midfield really well and we talked, which was really important. We connected well and got the ball up.”

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