Chicagoland Soccer

Lindberg comes up big as Warriors earn draw with Trojans

By Matt Le Cren

Willowbrook snapped its four-game losing streak Tuesday night and Shanti Lindberg was a big reason why.

The junior goalie came up with nine saves as the host Warriors eked out a 1-1 tie with Downers Grove North in Villa Park despite being outshot by a 21-3 margin.

Lindberg and her defense were under siege for much of the West Suburban Conference crossover match but were up to the task.

“Honestly I’m used to teams coming at me a lot and I kind of like it,” Lindberg said. “It’s a thrill.”

It was nearly a thrill a minute as Downers North (0-5-2), which had been outscored 20-1 on the season, enjoyed its best offensive showing of the season.

But the Trojans’ only goal came with 7:57 left in the first half when sophomore Gianna Marconi made a strong run into the right side of the Willowbrook penalty area and beat Lindberg with an eight-yard shot into the lower left corner of the net.

That spoiled Lindberg’s bid for her third shutout, but the Trojans never increased their lead despite keeping her on her toes.

Lindberg made two excellent saves, leaping to grab a 22-yard shot by Sarah Costello with 13:25 left in the first half and sliding to her knees to stop a drive by Megan Treichel from the right side of the box with 2:25 remaining in the second half.

“It makes me pretty happy to know that I can stop that many and not have that many goals [against] and still come out with a tie,” Lindberg said. “It helps the team, too.”

Willowbrook coach Pete Montgomery was pleased with the efforts of his keeper.

“She does a great job of minding the net and controlling the box as well,” Montgomery said. “One of the areas she’s done some great improvement in is her communication. She’s far more vocal than she was last year and that helps the whole defense.”

Indeed, the Warriors played much better defense after intermission than before it and that allowed them to weather a fierce offensive effort by the Trojans, who came up empty on eight corner kicks and a pair of dangerous free kicks.

Downers North missed two big opportunities when Costello’s 36-yard free kick hit the crossbar and Lindberg saved Ellie Metros’ rebound header midway through the first half, and a shot by Bianca Romay clanged off the bar from 12 yards out just 80 seconds into the second half.

“We talked at halftime that we were kind of our own worst enemy in the first half,” Montgomery said. “We had a lot of poor first touches and we passed away a lot of balls to space that nobody was running into and so those were the two big things that we wanted to correct in the second half and I feel like we did much better.

“We ramped up the intensity, we were softer with our first touches and we kept them in play better and I thought we possessed better. We played passes to Warrior feet instead of nobody or worse yet to the other team.”

But the Warriors (2-6-2) continued to struggle offensively. Willowbrook has scored 11 goals this spring, six of which came in a 6-0 win over Eisenhower on March 15. Since then, they’ve found the back of the net only four times, though one of those goals came with 2:51 to go in the first half of this one.

Sophomore forward Lindsey Petersen produced the equalizer with the type of aggressive play Montgomery would like to see more of from his squad. Senior midfielder Louisa Reese made a steal just across midfield and tried to send a long pass up the middle.

The ball was blocked by a defender but Petersen got to the loose ball and immediately lobbed a high-arcing shot on frame from about 28 yards out. Downers North freshman goalie Izzy Greenblatt was caught a few steps off her line and was able to get a hand on the shot but not enough to knock it over the bar.

It was the second goal of the year for Petersen and just the second shot the Warriors got off.

“I think we could have played a little smarter maybe, definitely taken more shots when we got the opportunity,” Petersen said. “[But the tie] I would say [is] really important because that definitely boosts our confidence. That’s one thing that we really needed to keep up.”

The Warriors were unable to get any momentum after Petersen’s goal, managing just one shot in the second half, that being a 38-yard free kick by Reese that sailed well wide of the mark with 28:25 to go.

“We talked at halftime, we took two shots in the first half and one of them went in, so I challenged them to increase that number in the second half,” Montgomery said. “Obviously, that didn’t [happen]. We’ve got to take more shots if we’re going to win games.”

But at least the Warriors were solid defensively behind the play of fullbacks Marissa Yepez, Andy Escallier and sophomore Lauren Carroll and midfielders Jamie Colella, Tracie Steben, Natalie Wolski and Gaby Herrera.

“Lauren Carroll did a great job at sweeper,” Montgomery said. “She really went sideline to sideline and cleaned up all the loose balls. I thought Andy Escallier and Jamie Colella did a great job of stepping up. They were tight on marks and they made plays when they needed to.

“[The Trojans] tried to play a lot of long balls on us and we were able to step in and cut those off.”

“We definitely did really good with that,” Petersen said of the defense. “We need to maybe stay on our marks a little more, but everyone was where they needed to be when they needed to be.”

The Warriors now hit the road for their next five games, beginning with another WSC crossover match at Proviso West on Saturday, before returning home to face Proviso East on April 24.