Streamwood stands in the way
of Glenbard East's Upstate 8 title hopes
By Jared Birchfield
Glenbard East and Streamwood begin the home stretch of the regular-season with an Upstate Eight Conference battle at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Millennium Field in Streamwood.
Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey sees the contest as the next step in the Rams push for a conference title, while Streamwood counterpart Matt Polovin hopes his squad can continue its momentum built over the last three matches.
Glenbard East, with a 3-0-1 league mark, trails Elgin (5-0-0) and Bartlett (4-0-1) in the league points standings. Overall, the Rams are 7-5-1.
“The conference championship is definitely our main goal, and that's still within our reach,” Overbey said. Five of the Rams’ last seven regular-season games are against conference foes.
“It’s a tall order,” he conceded. “We play Streamwood and then turn around the next day and go to Elgin. There are some big games in there. We are in control of our own destiny. We don't we don't have to rely on any other scores; we just have to handle our business.”
The 2022 campaign has been a challenging one for Streamwood and Polovin. He has had to continually juggle his starting lineup. As a result, the Sabres endured a nine-game losing streak. Streamwood (3-10-1, 2-3-1) snapped the skid with a 2-0 win over Sycamore on Saturday and followed up with league points against East Aurora (a 7-0 win) and Glenbard South (1-1 tie).
“I've been coaching for a very long time, and I've never experienced a season like the one I'm having right now,” Polovin said. “I've had girls going on vacations, family emergencies and injuries. There haven’t been two games in a row where I've had the same lineup.
“Then all of a sudden during the last three games things have just jelled and are looking very good.”
The Sabres coach hopes his team can continue the momentum for the rest of the regular-season and into the postseason.
“If we can win our last three conference games, we would still have a chance to be in the top third and that would be great for the girls,” Polovin said. “We are just trying to keep everyone healthy, in town, and just focus on getting ready for regionals, the most important part of the season.”
Senior Diana Herrera’s increased offensive output has also been a catalyst.
“Diana had three goals and three assists against East Aurora this week. She's not known for her goal-scoring; she's more of a distributor, someone who gets a lot of assists,” said Polovin. “Her recent goals have been in the run of play, which is nice.”
He also hopes for that junior Dayanara Huerta, the team’s leading scorer with seven goals, will continue to find the back of the net.
Overbey will counter the Streamwood attack with an increasingly less green backline.
“We’re very young back there,” the Glenbard East coach said. “We've got Briella DeForest, a junior; Julia Bereta, a freshman, and Jamie Quirk and Ciara Johnson, both sophomores. They have played a bunch of minutes for us and have been huge.”
The Rams coach thinks the matchup between his defenders and Herrera and Huerta will be critical to the contest’s outcome.
“(Herrera and Huerta) work very well together and work very well off each other. They're dangerous,” he said. “They can get in behind and shoot from the outside and bring their teammates into the play and kind of expose teams.
“I think the key will be our defense locking up those two and taking advantage of the chances that we can hopefully generate.”
Overbey will look to senior Maia Zatarski to try and generate Glenbard East opportunities.
“She's our leading scorer with nine goals,” he said. “Sometimes when you see a high goal count, they might have tallied a bunch against a weaker opponent. But we've had a couple of one-goal games and most of the time it's been Maya,” he said. “She always steps up, and she can shoot from anywhere.”
of Glenbard East's Upstate 8 title hopes
By Jared Birchfield
Glenbard East and Streamwood begin the home stretch of the regular-season with an Upstate Eight Conference battle at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Millennium Field in Streamwood.
Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey sees the contest as the next step in the Rams push for a conference title, while Streamwood counterpart Matt Polovin hopes his squad can continue its momentum built over the last three matches.
Glenbard East, with a 3-0-1 league mark, trails Elgin (5-0-0) and Bartlett (4-0-1) in the league points standings. Overall, the Rams are 7-5-1.
“The conference championship is definitely our main goal, and that's still within our reach,” Overbey said. Five of the Rams’ last seven regular-season games are against conference foes.
“It’s a tall order,” he conceded. “We play Streamwood and then turn around the next day and go to Elgin. There are some big games in there. We are in control of our own destiny. We don't we don't have to rely on any other scores; we just have to handle our business.”
The 2022 campaign has been a challenging one for Streamwood and Polovin. He has had to continually juggle his starting lineup. As a result, the Sabres endured a nine-game losing streak. Streamwood (3-10-1, 2-3-1) snapped the skid with a 2-0 win over Sycamore on Saturday and followed up with league points against East Aurora (a 7-0 win) and Glenbard South (1-1 tie).
“I've been coaching for a very long time, and I've never experienced a season like the one I'm having right now,” Polovin said. “I've had girls going on vacations, family emergencies and injuries. There haven’t been two games in a row where I've had the same lineup.
“Then all of a sudden during the last three games things have just jelled and are looking very good.”
The Sabres coach hopes his team can continue the momentum for the rest of the regular-season and into the postseason.
“If we can win our last three conference games, we would still have a chance to be in the top third and that would be great for the girls,” Polovin said. “We are just trying to keep everyone healthy, in town, and just focus on getting ready for regionals, the most important part of the season.”
Senior Diana Herrera’s increased offensive output has also been a catalyst.
“Diana had three goals and three assists against East Aurora this week. She's not known for her goal-scoring; she's more of a distributor, someone who gets a lot of assists,” said Polovin. “Her recent goals have been in the run of play, which is nice.”
He also hopes for that junior Dayanara Huerta, the team’s leading scorer with seven goals, will continue to find the back of the net.
Overbey will counter the Streamwood attack with an increasingly less green backline.
“We’re very young back there,” the Glenbard East coach said. “We've got Briella DeForest, a junior; Julia Bereta, a freshman, and Jamie Quirk and Ciara Johnson, both sophomores. They have played a bunch of minutes for us and have been huge.”
The Rams coach thinks the matchup between his defenders and Herrera and Huerta will be critical to the contest’s outcome.
“(Herrera and Huerta) work very well together and work very well off each other. They're dangerous,” he said. “They can get in behind and shoot from the outside and bring their teammates into the play and kind of expose teams.
“I think the key will be our defense locking up those two and taking advantage of the chances that we can hopefully generate.”
Overbey will look to senior Maia Zatarski to try and generate Glenbard East opportunities.
“She's our leading scorer with nine goals,” he said. “Sometimes when you see a high goal count, they might have tallied a bunch against a weaker opponent. But we've had a couple of one-goal games and most of the time it's been Maya,” he said. “She always steps up, and she can shoot from anywhere.”