By Gargoyle sports staff

Posted Sunday, April 15, 2007, The OG, girls soccer & sports

Mandy Grill, talking with Zoë Schein after the

game, shows what playing in the mud can do to

a goalkeeper's uniform. (Gargoyle photo) (click

to enlarge)

URBANA — Suran Yoo scored 2 goals and fellow junior Sarah Pfander added another as they led Uni to a 3-2 conference win Saturday over visiting Normal Calvary Baptist Academy (CBA).

The victory raises Uni's record to 2-3-1 overall and 1-0 in the East Central Illinois Conference. CBA is 2-1 overall.

The win was Uni's second straight; it was also the second consecutive game in which the Illineks avenged a loss from last season. The Crusaders defeated Uni 4-1 when they faced each other in 2006.

On Thursday, Uni beat Macon Meridian 1-0, a year after losing to the Hawks 8-0.

Saturday's contest was played in a cold rain, sometimes mixed with snow, leaving the field slick and muddy. When the match began at 2 p.m. the temperature was 37 degrees, with 16 mph winds and a wind chill of 28, according to the National Weather Service.

Despite the bad weather and even worse field conditions, Uni jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

Yoo, the Illineks' leader on offense last year with 7 goals, netted her first score of 2007 about 15 minutes into the match.

Pfander, who won Thursday's game with a late second-half goal, put Uni ahead 2-0 with about 23 minutes left in the half.

The host Illineks kept most of the first-half action inside CBA's territory, at the south end of the field. Making the most out of Uni's favorable field position, Yoo scored again with 13:20 remaining before halftime.

“We picked up where we left off Thursday — with aggressive play,” said head coach Phil Anders.

Yoo's breakout performance was not surprising. Anders remarked after Thursday's game that Yoo had been essential to Uni's offense despite not scoring a goal herself. From her position on the right side of the field, Yoo was “making things happen” for her teammates, Anders said.

It was just a matter of time before she capitalized with a goal herself — or in Saturday's case, two.

As it turned out, Uni would need that second goal from Yoo.

When play resumed after the break, CBA went on the attack. The Crusaders got on the board about 8 minutes into the second half.

After that, CBA succeeded in maintaining pressure on Uni, but senior keeper Mandy Grill and the Uni defense played tough. With 13:55 left Grill made a spectacular save, lunging to the left side of the goal and landing in the mud as she knocked away a Crusader shot.

But with 9:43 remaining, the Crusaders scored a second time. The shot came from the left side again, but this time the ball just barely eluded Grill.

With time against them, the Crusaders frantically tried to put even more pressure on Uni in the final minutes. Junior Zoë Schein came up big for the Illineks with 1:48 left, clearing away a dangerous shot.

Despite several other late opportunities, CBA couldn't get the tying goal past Grill, and the visitors left the field with their first loss of the year.

“We won this game because we're playing the game the way it should be played,” said Anders, who praised his team's determination to get to the ball quickly and share it.

In the first half the Illineks recorded 14 shots overall, while CBA managed only 4. In the second half the action shifted as the Crusaders launched 10 shots compared to Uni's 2. Grill finished the game with 5 saves; her CBA counterpart made 11.

The Crusaders' comeback attempt might have succeeded against a team with less resilience than Uni.

“I go back to the Charleston game,” Anders said, recalling that Uni played the Class AA Lady Trojans to a 1-1 deadlock in the first half Tuesday before giving up 6 goals in the second half.

“They didn't get down,” he said of his players.

Instead the Illineks went out Thursday and beat Meridian.

“That's a testament to this team,” Anders said.

The girls will get a chance to see just how much they've improved when they play St. Thomas More on Tuesday afternoon at DCR Fields. This will be a rematch of Uni's March 28 season opener, when the Sabers won 2-1.

“This should be the test,” Anders said. “We lost that first game in the first 12 minutes. We've developed since then, but so have they.”

VARSITY RECORD: 2-3-1 overall, 1-0 East Central Illinois Conference

(Games at DCR Fields are in bold)

Season Preview: Illineks look for improvement as season begins today

March 28: St. Thomas More, L 2-1

— Illinek scoring recap: Michelle Wong (penalty kick, first half)

— story: Uni drops season opener

March 30: Centennial, L 3-0

— Illinek scoring recap: no goals

— story: History is repeated in 3-0 loss to Centennial

April 3: Urbana, game canceled because of wet field conditions (will not be rescheduled)

April 5: at Monticello, T 2-2

— Illinek scoring recap: Erika Belmont (first half); Joy Shapley (second half)

— story: Illineks come back to tie Monticello

April 10: at Charleston, L 7-1

— Illinek scoring recap: Erika Belmont (first half)

— story: Close game turns into lopsided loss to Charleston

April 12: Macon Meridian, W 1-0

— Illinek scoring recap: Sarah Pfander (second half)

— story: Pfander's goal lifts Uni over Meridian for first win

April 14: Normal Calvary Baptist, * W 3-2

— Illinek scoring recap: Suran Yoo (2 goals, both first half); Sarah Pfander (first half)

— story: see above

*East Central Illinois Conference opponent

Remaining games: see schedule