Joliet West edges Plainfield South 2-1 in key conference matchup

JOLIET – With less than three weeks left in the girls soccer regular season, things have taken shape in the Southwest Prairie Conference.

Joliet West has been hanging around in the middle of the pack, while Plainfield South has found itself near the bottom of the standings. Thursday’s match between the two presented West an opportunity to solidify the fifth spot in the standings and work toward more. South, meanwhile, was looking to move up to the midsection of the table.

After an even first half, Joliet West did enough to earn the win.

Joliet West dominated the time of possession in the second half, creating chance after chance but coming up just short a number of times. Emma Vugteveen’s second goal of the contest in the 60th minute, however, was the only one the Tigers needed to earn the 2-1 victory.

Joliet West (9-6, 4-3 SPC) entered the game in sixth place in the conference, but well behind Plainfield Central’s 4-1-1 fourth-place conference mark. With Romeoville half a game behind them, the Tigers needed the win to stay ahead and strenghten their chances of earning a top-four spot.

They did their part Thursday.

“It’s kind of funny ... up until Yorkville on Tuesday we haven’t won the second half of any game,” Joliet West coach Alan Stewart said. “I think Plainfield East was the only time we scored a second-half goal in a win. We’ve had conversations about staying up with energy, and that showed tonight.”

Plainfield South struck first just eight minutes into the game. The Cougars’ Rachel Brayton caught West keeper Giselle Aguirre out of position and made the Tigers pay with a goal.

The Tigers evened the score 10 minutes after that. A Joliet West corner kick was driven in front of the net, where Vugteveen headed it in and knotted the score at 1.

The rest of the half was filled with close calls but no cigar for either team. Possession favored the Cougars, but the Tigers earned a few chances themselves. Eventually the teams went to halftime with the score still tied.

The second half was all Joliet West. The Tigers made some lineup changes, including moving Aguirre to defense and putting Kaleigh Blatti in the net. That may have gone unnoticed as the ball rarely crossed over to Joliet West’s side of the field the second 40 minutes.

West created more opportunities in the second half than either team seemed to have in the first, but South keeper Allison Beintum made some key saves to keep the score even. That was until the 60th minute when Vugteveen managed to break through with her second goal of the game to put West up for good.

“I think we started attacking more on the outsides [in the second half],” Vugteveen said. “We kept working toward the middle, and we just have to keep talking and working together the rest of the year.”

Plainfield South (4-8, 1-5) played well enough to win in the first half. Coach Thomas Blake was pleased with the effort the first 40 minutes of the game, although the final score was a disappointment. The Cougars had an opportunity to move up to seventh in the standings, but now remain above only Yorkville, Bolingbrook and Joliet Central, which are all winless in conference.

“We’re starting to get healthy as best as we can,” Blake said. “Typically our message is about staying together, keeping composure and picking each other up. We just have to keep doing that to dig ourselves out of that whole we’re in.”

Plainfield South will host Plainfield East on Monday, while Joliet West will visit Blue Island Eisenhower on Saturday.