Bison's second half too much for Fremd
By Mike Garofola

Buffalo Grove continues having the final say during its early-season success.

Colleen Zickert once again showed exactly how to do it with an outrageous strike to give the Bison the lead for good in a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Fremd Wednesday night in Palatine.

Zickert's one-timer off a brilliant helper from Jessica Kovach just five minutes into the second period came after her sister Kelli drew the Bison even, just moments after officials whistled the start of the second half.

“Buffalo Grove is very technical and tactical in the way they play the game, and they've got the ability to play quick and get the ball forward because of a lot of players who are good on the ball,” Fremd coach Steve Keller said. “We're just not at that level with them but I’m sure there aren't a lot of teams who are."

Buffalo Grove (6-0-1, 2-0-0) attacked with gusto in the opening minutes of the match.

"It kind of looked like we were still on spring break at the start," Keller joked. “But they really came at us and we dodged a couple of bullets. To our credit we got back into the game and played them pretty even for the rest of the first half, but we couldn't match what they were doing in the second half."

The Bison, who were not at full strength when they drew 1-1 with Batavia in their final contest at the Lake Park Invite, welcomed back midfielder Carly Brown to Wednesday’s match and the senior showed just why her presence is so valued.

Fremd took a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute on a Caroline Wagner goal and took over the run of play until BG coach Pat Dudle brought Brown on at 22 minutes, and the Bison attack was immediately energized.

With her well-aimed corners, lively play on the flank, and meaningful runs, Brown helped BG gain back the run of play.

"Courtney gives us great pace and energy on the outside, and she helps create a lot of space for others as well as herself," Dudle said.

After the Vikings (1-1-1) weathered the storm of watching both Kelli Zickert and Kim Herzog each have a chance to get into the back of the net in the game’s first 5 minutes, Fremd’s Mary-Kate Schiffer flashed a low cross through the 6-yard box and nearly found teammate Katie Zara at the back post.

The scoring chance appeared to awaken the Vikings’ attack and with the hosts playing through talented midfielder Michelle Mottonen, the game opened up for Fremd.

Mottonen, who was an all-MSL player as a sophomore and then took a year away to play club soccer, was the Vikings’ best player during her 80 minutes of action, which was split between attacking mid and striker.

“Michelle really understands how to play the game at a high level," Keller said. "Technically and tactically she’s unmatched and it shows with the little things that she does out there. We hope that in time others will begin to see what we need from them in that area in order to compete with teams like Buffalo Grove, and against some of the other teams we’ll be playing in the next couple of weeks.”

A nicely played crossfield ball from Fremd’s Bri Frys to Jessa Rizzo at the back post was intercepted by Bison keeper Sarah O'Connor, but O'Connor could do nothing but take a chance dive when Wagner caught up to Zara's helper at 15 minutes.

The Vikings continued to attack through the Mottonen, Zara, and Wagner, while its basketball star/midfielder Ashley McConnell controlled the middle of the park with near perfect 50-50 wins in the air and on the floor.

"(Mottonen) gave us fits in the first half, so we asked (Jessica) Kovach to handle her in the second half, and she helped slow her down," Dudle said.

Kovach was happy to take on the challenge.

"There's a lot of team chemistry, and we all understand what we have to do to win games like this, and that's one of the great things about this team," said Kovach, who last year was a freshman that took on the role of director of the offense.

Kovach and midfield partner Skylar Groth helped ignite the Bison during the last quarter hour of the first half.

After the Bison backline cleared a troublesome ball out of the area, a well-played build-up from BG saw Sara Busse alone from just outside the box, with the ball on her right boot. The sophomore had a nice go but it was sent directly at Fremd keeper Christine Piasecki.

A Groth freekick went just over the bar and then Kovach put a lovely ball to the 6 where Colleen Zickert almost beat Piasecki just a few minutes shy of intermission.

The Bison started brightly after the break and were on the front foot from the moment the center official opened play with his whistle.

Kelli Zickert got her club off and running at 42 minutes when she buried a shot past Piasecki, after teammate Allie Ingham put her into a one-vee-one situation with the Fremd keeper.

An Ingham shot from inside the area was blocked on the way through and Colleen Zickert watched her attempt stopped by Piasecki, just after sister Kelli equalized.

Kovach provided the helper for Colleen Zickert on a highlight reel goal, when Zickert took a serve out of the air and in the same motion fired into the back of the net past Piasecki, who gave it a valiant try.

"We didn't play well enough during the first half," admitted Kelli Zickert, “but in the second half our passes were quicker and better, and so was our movement with and without the ball."

Keller went three up top (Mottonen, Wagner and Rizzo) for the final 22 minutes of regulation, and Dudle would counter by moving Groth to the backline along with Shannon Guercio and Sara Brawley to counter Fremd’s tactical move.

Fremd looked to play more direct in search of a tying goal, with Cassie Etelmaki, Katherine Ernst and Courtney Norenberg all sending several balls over the top with the hope of putting their teammates through and in on O'Connor. But Kovach always seemed to be there to collect and if not, the Bison backline did well to keep most everything in the front of them.

"No. 9 (Skylar Groth) is such a good player,” Keller said. “Look at how (Dudle) moved her into the back and the easy transition she made doing so.

"We obviously are going to need to find a way to generate more of an attack. They probably outshot us three or four times to one, and that will have to improve if we want to compete with quality teams from here on out."

"This was a good win for us," Kelli Zickert said. "We showed in the second half we can play at a high level, and to do so against a team like Fremd says a lot about our team."

Dudle agreed.

"It's exciting to see us play the way we did tonight, and I really feel if we can play at this level then we have a chance to have ourselves a special kind of a season before it's over."