Sabres fall victim to Batavia's 4-goal barrage
By Gary Larsen

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO GALLERY OF THE GAME

With a gale-force wind determined to keep the ball at the south end of Streamwood’s artificial surface, Batavia coach Mark Gianfrancesco went against the usual protocol.

“Usually we’ll play against the wind in the first half but we’re short subs and I wanted us to get up early,” he said. “So with the wind, we were playing four up top in the first half.”

That strategy paid off in the Bulldogs’ 4-1 win but not before Streamwood’s Kim Jimenez put a scare into Batavia. A Jimenez penalty kick at 20 minutes gave her side a 1-0 lead and the high-scoring senior nearly scored on a breakaway early in the contest.

Batavia’s first-half keeper, Jenny Welday, had to make a fine diving save to her right on Jimenez’s breakaway and soon thereafter the Bulldogs got a bit of an earful.

“That’s probably the flattest I’ve seen us come out all season,” Gianfrancesco said. “I think the PK really woke them up and for the first time I had to ride them a little bit. I haven’t had to do that all year. I don’t like having to do that but I had to get on them a little bit.”

Batavia (9-3-3, 3-2-1 in UEC River play) responded, getting four goals in a 10-minute span of the first half, with freshman Megan McEachern and senior Shelby Stone in the thick of things.

McEachern tied the game at 24 minutes on a beauty of a strike from 18 yards out, off a feed from Stone, Stone struck on a head shot off a corner kick feed from Rachel Reinecke minutes later, and Stone fed McEachern for another quick goal.

Reinecke finished Batavia’s four-goal, 10-minute span of doom for Streamwood, on an assist from Kayla Stolfa.

“There were some nice goals. Megan’s goal from 18 was very nice and she does that on a consistent basis. She probably has close to 15 or 16 goals this year,” Gianfrancesco said.

It didn’t help Streamwood (9-5-3, 2-3) that rock-solid central defender Sharice Ellenwood was absent from Tuesday’s lineup, but despite trailing 4-1 at halftime, the Sabres didn’t quit.

“I thought we held our own as best we could," Streamwood coach Matt Polovin said. "Batavia is having a nice season, they’ve got good players and two good goalies.

"We had a few good breakaways in the second half, Kim had one that their keeper made a good save on in the first half, Tawny (Carroll) reached the endline a few times, and if we put one of those away maybe it's a different game.”

The Sabres have consistently created scoring chances throughout the season, but couldn’t finish on another outside of Jimenez’s first-half PK.

"I told the girls we wouldn't get fifty chances tonight, and the ones we got we were going to have to make the best of them,” Polovin said. “The great thing about this team is that it’s not a team of all club players, or anything close to it, but they find ways even against better teams to create and get chances.

“If we can put those in, especially at this time of the season when we’re getting ready for regionals -- we want to make sure we start putting those chances in because when we play Conant at regionals, you're not going to get too many chances and you'd better put those away."

As the No. 14 seed of the Class 3A Hoffman Estates Sectional, Streamwood plays No. 4 Conant in a regional semifinal at Conant on May 14.

Batavia got the third seed at Hoffman Estates and the Bulldogs open with a regional semi against No. 14 Hoffman Estates.

Welday and fellow senior Nicki Seiton have been splitting time in net all season for the Bulldogs, and Seiton took over in the second half with the wind whipping in her face and kept the slate clean in the face of every counter Streamwood threw at her.

“It’s a great year. The seniors are really pulling us and the team is a lot tighter this year,” Seiton said. “Team chemistry has been great. From here, I think we just need to finish our opportunities, keep working hard, and stay focused on our goals this season.”

The Bulldogs are battling injuries and illness heading into Thursday’s UEC crossover tilt at Neuqua Valley, but Gianfrancesco was pleased with what his girls gave him on Tuesday with a short bench on the first hot and windy day of the spring.

“I thought (McEachern) played very well on the outside today,” Gianfrancesco said. “And in the second half we really needed Karina (Rosales) to check back and hold the ball for us and she held it and made some nice passes out, and allowed us to retain possession.

“Another bright spot coming back – she was just cleared yesterday – Olivia Callipari gave us some good energy on the outside in her first minutes of the whole season since she broke her jaw. (Reinecke) is a freshman and she started in back today and played very composed. I thought Nicki (Seiton) handled that wind very well in the second half, and Jenny (Welday) obviously had a nice save in the first half on that breakaway.”

Streamwood has home games against St. Charles East on Wednesday, Geneva on Thursday, and Leyden on Saturday this week.
"I thought the girls played well today despite the conditions,” Polovin said. “It's so windy out here today and the ball was hard to control. It' the first hot day and you could see girls getting gassed, too, especially in the last twenty minutes. But they fought hard."