Glenbard East overcomes
West Chicago's great goalkeeping
Wildcats tandem makes 23 saves, but Rams take 2-1 win
By Matt Le Cren
LOMBARD – It’s a good bet that none of the girls who played in Wednesday’s Upstate Eight Conference match between West Chicago and host Glenbard East have ever heard of Chuck Howley.
Howley was the Dallas Cowboys linebacker who had two interceptions and a forced fumble in a 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl V. He is the only player in Super Bowl history to win the game’s Most Valuable Player Award on the losing team.
West Chicago’s Ariana Hernandez can relate, at least a little bit. While a regular-season high school soccer match cannot compare to the bright lights of pro football’s biggest game, what Hernandez did against the Rams was impressive and noteworthy.
The freshman goalkeeper made 11 saves, including a great hustle play to steal a goal from Glenbard East’s Maia Zatarski. Despite her heroics, West Chicago lost the game 2-1.
Hernandez spent the final 32 minutes of the game on the sidelines with a bandage on her knee, the result of a cut suffered when she slid into the post on the play that robbed Zatarski.
For her efforts, Hernandez earned Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match honor, which almost always is awarded to a player from the winning team.
“Ariana is a special case, because she’s a volleyball player,” West Chicago coach Cesar Gomez said. “My job this year is to make a goalie, and I made two. I made her and one on JV.
“She’s a pretty good shot-blocker. She reads the game well, and she is flying around. Some of that comes from volleyball.”
The 5-foot-3 Hernandez is a back-row player in volleyball. She didn’t have much experience as a goalkeeper before high school, but she has proven to be a fearless and enthusiastic.
“I’m a little nervous now and then but I just keep my mind on the field,” Hernandez said. “Everything in the back of my head is gone.”
Glenbard East (7-3-2, 6-1-2) dominated most of the game. The Rams outshot the Wildcats 35-2 and would have easily scored at least 15 goals if not for the play of Hernandez and her replacement, sophomore Daisy Garcia, who started the game as a field player.
“Daisy is a goalie, but she’s very effective on the field as well,” Gomez said. “We know if something goes wrong, we can always use the sweeper keeper.”
Hernandez swept away nearly everything she faced. She was solid on low balls and regularly in position to block hard shots, but she also was effective on high balls, tipping two of the over the crossbar.
“I think my defense was doing really good blocking most of them,” Hernandez said. “The (East) girls had really good shots, but I have to block them, right?”
She did, but she couldn’t get to all of them. Senior defender Kendall Crackel gave the Rams a 1-0 lead when she knocked in Sarah Conroy’s free kick from the left corner with 4:06 left in the first half. It was Crackel’s first goal of the season.
Sophomore Jasime Dhamers made it 2-0 just 89 seconds into the second half when she bagged her team-leading 13th goal on a rocket from 20 yards.
“Sarah Liljestrand got the ball right inside of the 18 and dropped it back to me, and I was just able to get on the end of it,” Dhamers said. “But I feel that everybody on our team had a lot of opportunities today, especially Maia Zatarski.
“She had some amazing shots. A couple of them got deflected right outside the post.”
Indeed, Zatarski probably should have had at least a hat-trick and would have if not for the West Chicago goalies. In fact, one such denial came right after Dhamers’ goal and another led to Hernandez’s injury.
The Rams stole the kickoff and Dhamers bid for a second goal led to a hard shot from the top of the box. Hernandez made the diving save, then got up and raced Zatarski for the rebound.
Zatarski got to the ball about 10 yards outside the left post, but her shot was smothered by the charging Hernandez.
Six minutes later, Zatarski ran onto a long ball and broke free into the box. Herandez charged off her line, only to have Zatarski chip the ball over her head.
The ball bounced to the edge of the 6, and this time Zatarski and Hernandez found themselves in a foot race to the far post. Zatarski got to it and looked to have an easy tap in, but Herandez slid into the post while kicking the ball wide.
“It’s sad that the one girl got hurt. But the other girl stepped up, and she didn’t back down,” Dhamers said. “She gave us a good competition, and it made us work hard. It gave us the motivation to keep going.”
The loss of Hernandez gave the Wildcats (1-6-4, 1-4-3) some motivation and they stunned the Rams just 1:44 later when Joana Velazquez scored on a rebound after Glenbard East goalie Zoe Romano stopped but could not hold onto a long free kick from Luciana Balzer.
The Wildcats had a chance to tie the game when Garcia came 95 yards out into the field to take a 24-yard free kick with 25 minutes to go, but her strike went skittering wide of the left post.
“They were really pushing us out there,” Crackel said. “We did get a lot of chances. We just weren’t able to finish.
“Their goalie was really good. The backup was great, too. She surprised a lot of us. Her punts were going far, too.”
They needed to because the Rams constantly won the ball and attacked relentlessly, especially after West Chicago’s goal. The Wildcats barely got the ball past midfield in the final 25 minutes.
“I think that (West Chicago score) was a tough goal on our part but we were able to bounce back,” Crackel said. “Throughout the game we were possessing a lot.
“We knew they were going to play small ball and just use small passes around us, so it was important that we didn’t dive in. We were cutting off those passes, and I think that’s why we had success.”
Those successes didn’t translate into any more goals because Garcia made 12 saves in her half-hour between the pipes. That included two more stops on Zatarski.
“The first (West Chicago goalie) made a bunch of point-blank saves,” Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey said. “I thought (Hernandez’s final play) was a tap-in goal for Zatarski for sure.
“She was frustrated. That’s the biggest thing. Obviously, a conference win is huge, but we’ve got to be a little bit more judicious on that final third and take care of those chances.
“Monday was the first game this season that we had a full roster. We’re a little rusty but now that the playoffs are here, we’ve got to be able to take advantage of those chances.”
Gomez said that his team just needs bodies. The Wildcats were missing four injured players Wednesday, including senior midfielder Emily Amaya, who is out for the season.
But what the Wildcats lack in numbers, they make up for in gumption.
“You can’t teach heart,” Gomez said. “Our kids do have that.
“It’s hard to be happy with the result, but I know what we have and leaving Glenbard East at 2-1 is (not bad).”
MVP of the Match Hernandez wasn’t able to finish the game but her career is far from finished, or even near its zenith.
“I’ve got a lot of years ahead of me,” she said. “I’m ready to get better.”
Starting lineups
West Chicago
GK Ariana Hernandez
D Vanessa Romero Reyes
D Luciana Balzer
D Jenny Espinal
D Daisy Garcia
M Isabella Lopez
M Melissa Pani
M Joanna Velazquez
M Ruby Lebo
F Natalie Fernandez
F Jenna Zeitoun
Glenbard East
GK Zoe Romano
D Ruby Campuzano
D Hope McKenna
D Kendall Crackel
D Brielle DeForest
M Maia Zatarski
M Natalie Borcean
M Sophia Heatley
M Sarah Conroy
F Sarah Liljestrand
F Jasmine Dhamers
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Ariana Hernandez, fr., GK, West Chicago
Scoring summary
First half
Glenbard East – Kendall Crackel (Sarah Conroy), 4:06 remaining
Second half
Glenbard East – Jasmine Dhamers (Sarah Liljestrand), 38:31 remaining
West Chicago – Joana Velazquez, 30:22 remaining
West Chicago's great goalkeeping
Wildcats tandem makes 23 saves, but Rams take 2-1 win
By Matt Le Cren
LOMBARD – It’s a good bet that none of the girls who played in Wednesday’s Upstate Eight Conference match between West Chicago and host Glenbard East have ever heard of Chuck Howley.
Howley was the Dallas Cowboys linebacker who had two interceptions and a forced fumble in a 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl V. He is the only player in Super Bowl history to win the game’s Most Valuable Player Award on the losing team.
West Chicago’s Ariana Hernandez can relate, at least a little bit. While a regular-season high school soccer match cannot compare to the bright lights of pro football’s biggest game, what Hernandez did against the Rams was impressive and noteworthy.
The freshman goalkeeper made 11 saves, including a great hustle play to steal a goal from Glenbard East’s Maia Zatarski. Despite her heroics, West Chicago lost the game 2-1.
Hernandez spent the final 32 minutes of the game on the sidelines with a bandage on her knee, the result of a cut suffered when she slid into the post on the play that robbed Zatarski.
For her efforts, Hernandez earned Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match honor, which almost always is awarded to a player from the winning team.
“Ariana is a special case, because she’s a volleyball player,” West Chicago coach Cesar Gomez said. “My job this year is to make a goalie, and I made two. I made her and one on JV.
“She’s a pretty good shot-blocker. She reads the game well, and she is flying around. Some of that comes from volleyball.”
The 5-foot-3 Hernandez is a back-row player in volleyball. She didn’t have much experience as a goalkeeper before high school, but she has proven to be a fearless and enthusiastic.
“I’m a little nervous now and then but I just keep my mind on the field,” Hernandez said. “Everything in the back of my head is gone.”
Glenbard East (7-3-2, 6-1-2) dominated most of the game. The Rams outshot the Wildcats 35-2 and would have easily scored at least 15 goals if not for the play of Hernandez and her replacement, sophomore Daisy Garcia, who started the game as a field player.
“Daisy is a goalie, but she’s very effective on the field as well,” Gomez said. “We know if something goes wrong, we can always use the sweeper keeper.”
Hernandez swept away nearly everything she faced. She was solid on low balls and regularly in position to block hard shots, but she also was effective on high balls, tipping two of the over the crossbar.
“I think my defense was doing really good blocking most of them,” Hernandez said. “The (East) girls had really good shots, but I have to block them, right?”
She did, but she couldn’t get to all of them. Senior defender Kendall Crackel gave the Rams a 1-0 lead when she knocked in Sarah Conroy’s free kick from the left corner with 4:06 left in the first half. It was Crackel’s first goal of the season.
Sophomore Jasime Dhamers made it 2-0 just 89 seconds into the second half when she bagged her team-leading 13th goal on a rocket from 20 yards.
“Sarah Liljestrand got the ball right inside of the 18 and dropped it back to me, and I was just able to get on the end of it,” Dhamers said. “But I feel that everybody on our team had a lot of opportunities today, especially Maia Zatarski.
“She had some amazing shots. A couple of them got deflected right outside the post.”
Indeed, Zatarski probably should have had at least a hat-trick and would have if not for the West Chicago goalies. In fact, one such denial came right after Dhamers’ goal and another led to Hernandez’s injury.
The Rams stole the kickoff and Dhamers bid for a second goal led to a hard shot from the top of the box. Hernandez made the diving save, then got up and raced Zatarski for the rebound.
Zatarski got to the ball about 10 yards outside the left post, but her shot was smothered by the charging Hernandez.
Six minutes later, Zatarski ran onto a long ball and broke free into the box. Herandez charged off her line, only to have Zatarski chip the ball over her head.
The ball bounced to the edge of the 6, and this time Zatarski and Hernandez found themselves in a foot race to the far post. Zatarski got to it and looked to have an easy tap in, but Herandez slid into the post while kicking the ball wide.
“It’s sad that the one girl got hurt. But the other girl stepped up, and she didn’t back down,” Dhamers said. “She gave us a good competition, and it made us work hard. It gave us the motivation to keep going.”
The loss of Hernandez gave the Wildcats (1-6-4, 1-4-3) some motivation and they stunned the Rams just 1:44 later when Joana Velazquez scored on a rebound after Glenbard East goalie Zoe Romano stopped but could not hold onto a long free kick from Luciana Balzer.
The Wildcats had a chance to tie the game when Garcia came 95 yards out into the field to take a 24-yard free kick with 25 minutes to go, but her strike went skittering wide of the left post.
“They were really pushing us out there,” Crackel said. “We did get a lot of chances. We just weren’t able to finish.
“Their goalie was really good. The backup was great, too. She surprised a lot of us. Her punts were going far, too.”
They needed to because the Rams constantly won the ball and attacked relentlessly, especially after West Chicago’s goal. The Wildcats barely got the ball past midfield in the final 25 minutes.
“I think that (West Chicago score) was a tough goal on our part but we were able to bounce back,” Crackel said. “Throughout the game we were possessing a lot.
“We knew they were going to play small ball and just use small passes around us, so it was important that we didn’t dive in. We were cutting off those passes, and I think that’s why we had success.”
Those successes didn’t translate into any more goals because Garcia made 12 saves in her half-hour between the pipes. That included two more stops on Zatarski.
“The first (West Chicago goalie) made a bunch of point-blank saves,” Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey said. “I thought (Hernandez’s final play) was a tap-in goal for Zatarski for sure.
“She was frustrated. That’s the biggest thing. Obviously, a conference win is huge, but we’ve got to be a little bit more judicious on that final third and take care of those chances.
“Monday was the first game this season that we had a full roster. We’re a little rusty but now that the playoffs are here, we’ve got to be able to take advantage of those chances.”
Gomez said that his team just needs bodies. The Wildcats were missing four injured players Wednesday, including senior midfielder Emily Amaya, who is out for the season.
But what the Wildcats lack in numbers, they make up for in gumption.
“You can’t teach heart,” Gomez said. “Our kids do have that.
“It’s hard to be happy with the result, but I know what we have and leaving Glenbard East at 2-1 is (not bad).”
MVP of the Match Hernandez wasn’t able to finish the game but her career is far from finished, or even near its zenith.
“I’ve got a lot of years ahead of me,” she said. “I’m ready to get better.”
Starting lineups
West Chicago
GK Ariana Hernandez
D Vanessa Romero Reyes
D Luciana Balzer
D Jenny Espinal
D Daisy Garcia
M Isabella Lopez
M Melissa Pani
M Joanna Velazquez
M Ruby Lebo
F Natalie Fernandez
F Jenna Zeitoun
Glenbard East
GK Zoe Romano
D Ruby Campuzano
D Hope McKenna
D Kendall Crackel
D Brielle DeForest
M Maia Zatarski
M Natalie Borcean
M Sophia Heatley
M Sarah Conroy
F Sarah Liljestrand
F Jasmine Dhamers
Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match: Ariana Hernandez, fr., GK, West Chicago
Scoring summary
First half
Glenbard East – Kendall Crackel (Sarah Conroy), 4:06 remaining
Second half
Glenbard East – Jasmine Dhamers (Sarah Liljestrand), 38:31 remaining
West Chicago – Joana Velazquez, 30:22 remaining