Soccer: Lemont Can’t Tame Mustangs in 4-0 Loss

Nothing worked for Lemont offensively or defensively as Downers Grove South overpowered the Indians 4-0 Tuesday evening at the Lemont High School Sports Complex.

The Mustangs (10-1-1) had freshman Stephanie Zurales kick in two goals while freshman Emily Wauer and junior Jess Pikul both notched scores to gallop past the Indians (6-2).

The first tally came in the eighth minute as Zurales broke away from Indian defenders and crossed left for an unreachable goal beyond Lemont freshman goalkeeper Kelly Fritz. Zurales and senior Keri Kujawa attacked Lemont’s defense relentlessly following the opening goal, which taxed the Indians’ defense for another opportunity to present itself.

About 27 minutes in, Lemont was attempting to prevent a corner kick from bouncing in, but Zurales headed the ball threw a myriad of defenders, making the Indians trail 2-0.

“I just try to get far corners because I have been shooting a lot at the goalie,” said Zurales of her eighth and ninth scores of the year.

Wauer then secured an empty netter by juking Fritz in the 38th minute for the 3-0 Mustang edge.

Lemont head coach Rick Prangen called Downers Grove South is "a great quality team," but attributed Zurales’ goals to defensive lapses.

“To be fair, in the first half, I thought we were a bit unfortunate to be down three,” Prangen said. “The first two goals were scored on very good finishes, but that was kind of from our own design. It wasn’t that they were great build-ups; we just made two mistakes in the back.

“They are a very good team. When you talk about having a build-up and keep the ball and get offensive movement forward that has everything to do with what they are doing and how they are doing it. When you are defending a lot and get that nine set going, it’s hard to break out of that.”

Prangen said his team had trouble getting to the final third and maintaining offensive possessions for more than one shot.

“Three out of the four goals were more of our own mistakes versus them breaking us,” he said. “That bothers me a bit.”

Second half play was not all that encouraging either, as Downers Grove South smothered Lemont’s attack. Pikul and senior Kimmy Grimmer were formidable in the backfield as they stuck like glue to Lemont sophomore forwards Wendy Mazur and Reilley Sullivan to prevent open shots and clearing threatening attacks at goal.

Finally, Pikul headed a corner kick 64 minutes in to add another goal to the final tally.

“We were just trying to spread the field a bit to be one on one on the outside of the field because Lemont did a nice job defending in the middle,” Downers Grove coach Barry Jacobson said. “We told our kids to attack more from the flanks of the field.”

Strong defensive efforts for the Indians occurred in the 57th minute, as Sullivan twice cleared goal shots from Downers Grove junior Sarrah Ludwig and junior forward Meghan Leibforth shielded the goal with her body to assist Fritz.

Lemont had goal chances in the 36th and 63rd minutes as Sullivan and senior defender Elise Cody launched rockets over the crossbars. The other opportunity was when freshman forward Kim Jerantowski passed to junior midfielder Amber Trick in the open field in the 46th, but the Mustangs closed in before Trick got to the box. 

The Indians' next game will be at 4:45 p.m. Thursday at home against Bremen.