Glenbard West defense shines at Plainfield Classic: Suburban Life girls soccer notebook

With three straight 2-0 victories against West Aurora, Andrew and host Plainfield North, Glenbard West had a good showing in the Plainfield Classic tournament despite dropping a 1-0 decision in the championship game to Oswego.

“I’m pleased with our overall performance over the tournament,” Hilltoppers coach Adam Szyszko said. “We got to play some quality teams outside of our area. West Aurora was undefeated until we played them and had a plus-43 goal differential, Andrew is one of the tougher sides in the south suburbs, Plainfield North is a really good side, as is Oswego. We had a good run but just came up second best on the final day.”

Sophomore goalie Mena Bartolucci earned three shutouts with Hana Allen, Julia Tracy, Patty Prescott and Hannah Roberts leading the back line and reserves Nessa Danielewicz, Gabby Delapaz and Mere Hedley also contributing in similar roles.

“Defensively we’re really jelling right now,” Szyszko said. “In a tournament where you play five games in eight days, everyone needs to step up. It’s hard to go 80 minutes night in, night out with little rest so I’m pleased that our bench mob was able to give us good minutes and keep the clean sheets.”

Seniors Hannah Michalowski and Lauren Escalante joined Allen and Bartolucci on the all-tournament team.

Last week, the Hilltoppers defeated York 1-0 in conference action and tied Glenbard South and Libertyville.

“Again we had a bit of a schedule crunch,” Szyszko said. “Glenbard South called and needed to move the game. So we wound up playing three games in four days. I’m happy we were able to keep our shutout streak going. Defeating a conference rival in York 1-0, playing a neighborhood rival with Glenbard South in a very entertaining game, then traveling up to Lake County to take on a tremendous Libertyville side and hold them 0-0 was a great result. I’m looking forward to our scheduling lightening up so we can get actual practice time in and work on something other than recovery activities.”

Lemont’s path

When Lincoln-Way West held on for a 3-2 victory April 26, it became the third Lincoln-Way school to beat Lemont this season.

While Lemont (10-5, 6-0) hasn’t been successful in the win column against the bigger Class 3A Lincoln-Way schools, it is dominating the South Suburban Conference where it has held everyone scoreless, enjoying a 39-0 goal scored/goals allowed advantage.

Lemont will host Evergreen Park on Thursday and travel to Oak Forest on Saturday.

Downers Grove North remains patient

Downers Grove North knows about patience. Last year, the Trojans finished with a losing record (11-12-2) but played some of their best soccer during the postseason, winning a regional title before losing to York on penalty kicks in a sectional semifinal. This season, the Trojans (3-4-4, 1-1) are navigating through a challenging schedule once again as well as a bit of a banged up roster.

“Our season has been going well so far,” Trojans coach Marty Manzke said. “We had some injuries throughout this season but fingers crossed everyone is coming back from them within the next week or two.”

Seniors Lexi Keown and Audrey Carlstead, junior Grace Gagnon and freshman Jordyn Sahin are leading the way.

“Our biggest goal deficit in a loss we had was a max of a two-goal differential,” Manzke said. “With our harder schedule, our main priority is getting our team to peak during playoffs.”

Benet reaches checkpoint

Rolling through the East Suburban Catholic Conference with five straight wins while outscoring opponents 26-1, Benet uses tougher games in the Ed Watson Naperville Invitational as a midseason checkpoint to assess where it’s at with the postseason looming.

The Redwings lost 3-0 to Barrington last week during the prestigious tournament. Their other two losses were against Metea Valley (10-1), which beat Wheaton Warrenville South to win the BodyArmor on Sunday, and to Naperville Central (11-1-1).

“When playing against the top teams in the state like Barrington, any deficiencies that we have tend to get exposed in those games,” Redwings coach Gerard Oconer said. “We are then able to focus on correcting those deficiencies during the last few weeks of the regular season so we are better prepared when we have to play against the top teams in our loaded sectional.”

Nothing can stop Atkinson

Hinsdale South senior Audrey Atkinson seemingly has been unstoppable at times at the Darien school.

She scored her 100th career goal April 19 as the Hornets rolled over Montini 7-1.

Atkinson is not going to play soccer in college but will graduate as the high school’s all-time leading scorer. For now, she’s a key reason why the Hornets (11-3) are playing well and battling for a conference title before heading into the postseason where they’ll look to make some noise.

Morton is heading to Iowa

After dropping tight games to Addison Trail and Hinsdale South, Morton has won three straight and is off to Iowa this weekend to compete in the Tournament of Champions in Bettendorf. Morton overwhelmed Eisenhower, Proviso East and Mansueto in its three-game winnin streak.

The Mustangs opened against Moline on Thursday in the tournament.

Unbeaten no more

Wheaton Warrenville South (9-1-2) saw its unbeaten streak to open the season end at 11 games after the Tigers dropped a 2-1 decision to Metea Valley in Sunday’s BodyArmor Final.

The Tigers looked to bounce back Thursday when they traveled to Lake Park (4-10) to resume conference play.