It’s been a season of ups and downs for Manteno girls soccer.
The Panthers beat Route 50 rival Peotone 1-0 on April 3, their first win against the Blue Devils in eight years.
But Manteno has been battling health issues all spring and was 4-7-2 overall and 1-2 in the Illinois Central Eight after a 5-2 home loss to Reed-Custer on April 17.
“We’re fighting injury issues quite a bit,” coach Erik Greenquist said after the Reed-Custer game. “We’ve probably put one 80-minute (game) together.
“You can see this one was three-quarters of a game. We played well for 60 minutes.”
Reed-Custer led 2-1 at halftime, with junior Michelle Carrera scoring for Manteno in the 14th minute.
The Comets made it 3-1 in the 55th minute and Panthers junior Emily Horath scored in the 58th minute to cut the deficit to 3-2. But Reed-Custer responded less than a minute later and added a late goal for the final score.
“That fourth goal deflated us,” Greenquist said.
The Panthers have been mostly competitive, “barring a couple big schools we played,” Greenquist said.
“But that’s the crazy thing about soccer. We play well one day, you never know what comes the next day. I mean, you look at the scores: we played Marian (Catholic to a) 5-5 (draw).They lose 2-1 to Kankakee, Kankakee loses 2-1 to Bloom. We lose (8-0 to Bloom).”
Two starters missed the Reed-Custer game, though senior goalkeeper Ava Derrico — a returning starter — is back after being injured in the season opener against Morris on March 17.
Derrico is averaging 7.3 saves per game and has a 1.22 goals-against average. Horath has been a productive scorer with a team-best 10 goals.
“Emily’s a workhorse, one of the nucleuses of the team.”
When healthy, the Panthers can be a problem for opponents.
“We’ve got some athletes,” Greenquist said. “We’re missing one of our forwards up top. But the underclassmen, definite role players, have done real well.”
With four regular-season games left after this week, Greenquist is hoping to get closer to full strength and make a push in the postseason. Manteno will host a regional in the Class 1A Coal City Sectional.
“We do play well at home,” Greenquist said.