By Scott Taylor | @Taylor_Sports
Coming off of four straight shutout losses, three by a 1-0 score, things looked bleak again for Joliet Catholic April 11 when it trailed Benet 3-0 at the half.
But great goaltending and a pair of goals made it a 3-2 game before the Angels’ rally ran out of time.
“It was a great comeback in the second half,” JCA coach Oscar Valdez said. “In the first half we were so flat. The girls did fight back and get two goals.”
The comeback started when the Angels’ goaltender Grace Whalen made some big stops to keep them in the game.
“Our boost game from our goalkeeper, who made a great save there with 10 or 15 minutes left,” Valdez said. She got her fingers on the ball and then dove and saved another. It helps a lot. We have to get back at it and improve.”
Emma Ehrsam and Andriana Acosta scored goals in the comeback.
“I’m going to give all the credit to Joliet Catholic,” Benet coach Bob Gros said. “I remember two years ago they were all freshmen and sophomores and they were very athletic, but they weren’t very organized and lacked confidence as young kids tend to be. In the second half they came out and really went hard. They went direct, were physical and knocked us on our butts and scored a couple really nice goals.”
Andriana Acosta scored a goal in a 3-2 loss to Benet.
Moving forward, the Angels hope to continue playing the way they played in the second half of the game.
“We want to play the way we played in the second half,” Valdez said. “We have to carry that over to every game.”
The loss dropped JCA to 1-5 on the season, but with an experienced roster, Valdez is confident the team will rebound and have a strong finish to the season.
“The season has been very disappointing because most games we have lost have been by one goal,” Valdez said. “We have to go back to the drawing board and see where we can fix things. We’ve been trying people at different places. We do have a team who can compete. Ia have seen it last year and many of these players are the same. I feel we will do very well down the stretch.”
Having good teamwork and communication will be needed to help the team turn things around.
“We need a lot more communication and cohesiveness,” Valdez said. “We get lost sometimes. We just have to put the ball in the net.”
The momentum from the comeback loss to Benet continued for the Angels as they went on to win the Rosary Tournament over the weekend, winning the championship match 2-0.