Glenbard East rallies to force draw

Updated: April 10, 2011 6:40PM

In years past, Glenbard East would have no hope of coming back after falling behind a superior team like West Chicago.

Not this year.

Freshman Alex Ruffer scored her first career goal with 19:17 left in the second half and Glenbard East's defense stayed strong through the rest of regulation and two sudden-death overtime periods as the host Rams managed a 1-1 tie in DuPage Valley Conference action Friday night in Lombard.

"That's been a huge focus for us," Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey said of the comeback. "In past years, we might have given up, but this is a great group of girls and we've been focusing on consistency. We knew if we kept doing what we were doing and we kept their big guns away from the goal that hopefully we could be successful, and we managed to put one in."

The Rams (2-2-3, 0-1-1) were completely outplayed in the scoreless first half and fell behind 1-0 when West Chicago senior Cassie Thill scored her first goal of the season at the 27:19 mark of the second half, volleying home a cross from Meagan Radloff.

Though they extended their unbeaten streak to six matches, the Wildcats (6-2-2, 1-0-1) couldn't extend the lead as Nicole Darga and Linsdey Paganucci managed to keep the Eastern Illinois-bound Radloff off the scoreboard and Rams goalie Veronica Fairbairn came up with nine saves.

The Rams got the equalizer off a short corner kick. Erin Mrazek passed to Ruffer just inside the top of the box and the rookie blasted a 17-yard shot into the upper left corner of the net.

"I was just trying to put the ball in the net and I hit a good ball," Ruffer said. "It feels really good. [The Wildcats] just beat Wheaton North so it was a good [result]."

"It was a huge [goal]," Overbey said. "Alex got up and down the field. I've been very impressed with her as a freshman, to come in and be able to play in the middle of the field as well as outside in the physical play in the DVC."

The Rams thought they had taken a 1-0 lead when Jessie Grumstrup scored on a 35-yard free kick as time expired in the first half. But after a conference, the referees waved off the goal, saying the ball did not cross the goal line before time ran out, even though the horn did not sound.

"It was pretty close, but it could go either way," Ruffer said. "It was really the ref's decision. We just decided to forget about what happened and try to rebound."

West Chicago coach Cesar Gomez, whose team is better suited to playing on artificial turf instead of the muddy grass at East, was impressed with the Rams' play.

"Their squad is good," Gomez said. "They know who our strong people are and they mark with two. They make a lot of progress. Those coaches are doing a good job."

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