CHICAGO HEIGHTS | Any way you put it, this was a big win for Bloom Township.
The Blazing Trojans overcame Southland Athletic Conference rival Crete-Monee in penalty kicks for the conference win Thursday night at Sarff Field. The win improved Bloom Township's record to 3-0 in conference play. Briana Williams scored the lone goal of the match for Bloom Township and also scored one of the Blazing Trojans penalty kicks.
"Side to side," Williams said of her penalty kick. "She didn't get the first goal so I was just thinking side to side. I'm just trying to help my team out as much as I can."
Bloom's keeper Katelin Wallek had an outstanding day in goal for the home team, recording 11 saves. Wallek had two saves in the final minutes of the second half to force the overtime and was a big reason for the Bloom Township win.
"They would get close but I would just trust my defense," Wallek said. "My defense has my back and I have their back. I just give it my all. I see the ball and all I'm thinking is ball. There was no way I was going to let it in."
Crete-Monee (4-3-2, 2-1) started the scoring in the first half when Amanda Baron found the back of the net for the Warriors. Williams then added Bloom's lone goal of the match to tie the game at one. That was where the score remained throughout the entire second half despite plenty of opportunities for goals in the half. Big saves by both Wallek and Warriors keeper Ashley McCray early in the second half helped to keep the match knotted at one. McCray finished the match with four saves.
"They prevented us from having more goals," Warriors coach Julian Lagunas said. "All the credit goes to Bloom more than anything else."
With an undefeated record in conference, Bloom Township is seeing good play out of the team and the play is turning into wins for the Blazing Trojans.
"We had a feeling if we could just hang with them we knew we had a chance," Bloom Township coach Kelly Gutierrez said. "We just come in playing hard."
Please Wait…