Team stays in 2nd place in conference standings
Chicago Dutch Lions FC (2-1-1) continued to hit its stride with a nail-biting 2-1 home win against the Chicago City Soccer Club (1-0-2) at Benedictine Saturday night. Abby Schwartz picked up right where she left off, scoring two critical Lions goals that wound up securing the victory.
While Chicago City SC cut the deficit to 2-1 and nearly tied the game just before the final seconds, the near flawless effort of goaltender, Mika Fisher, kept the Lions afloat throughout the entire match. After the busiest week in program history thus far, the Dutch Lions FC will get a well-earned week of rest before welcoming the Milwaukee Torrent to Benedictine next weekend.
Schwartz was happy to come away with the victory and enjoys seeing the growth of her teammates after just a few weeks of playing together: “I’m really happy about [the win]. It’s really nice to be at home,” Schwartz said. “The whole team has fought really hard to get the 2-1 win, and it worked out really well.”
Assistant GM Colby Murphy, who works directly with CEO Nikhil Erlebach and GM Bryan Sutherland, was pleased with how quickly the team has bonded in such a short amount of time: “I thought it was a great game,” Murphy said. “I’m super proud of the girls. I think they did really well. They haven’t been playing too long, but you wouldn’t know the difference seeing them play together.”
Erlebach was overjoyed with emotion to finish out an undefeated week at home without three Dutch Lions starters: “We definitely had to dig deep and they had to come together as a group to compensate of the losses of the players that we had missing today,” Eerlebach said. “I think that they did extremely well to replace Allie [Anderson], Sophia [Seneses], and MJ [Lesslia] who are very important for us. It’s just good ‘ole fashioned teamwork.”
The focus now shifts to the Lions earning its third-straight win on June 19 at 6 p.m. and keeping pace with the Red Stars Reserves for first place in the Lake Michigan Conference.