Girls Soccer: Martin Finds the Range for Downers South

Downers Grove South senior midfielder Megan Martin has decided not to play soccer in college, so she’s making sure she ends her playing career with a bang.

Martin has certainly made a lot of noise in the early going, and it continued Thursday night. In addition to controlling action in the midfield, she had a goal and two assists to lead the host Mustangs (7-1-1) to a 4-0 victory over Glenbard West.

Martin now has four goals and a team-leading eight assists. Much of that production has come off corner kicks. She was especially deadly on corners against the Hilltoppers (2-5-2), who consistently had trouble clearing them.

“We practice corner kicks every practice so she should know how to place those by now,” South junior Jessica Bronke said with a laugh. “She has really good placement on the ball and it’s really good when we’re able to finish.”

Bronke finished off one of Martin’s corner kicks, scoring her sixth goal of the season to give Downers South a 1-0 lead with 11:44 left in the first half. The play came moments after Glenbard West goalie Anne Soane made a great leaping effort to tip Bronke’s 35-yard shot over the bar.

“I was really shocked [Soane] got that [save],” Bronke said. “It was good that Megan played that ball because then right away we were able to score and get our momentum back, and then right after we got the first goal we just kept going harder and harder.”

Indeed, the Mustangs increased their lead to 2-0 just 1:12 later when senior Keri Kujawa raced around a defender and beat Soane with a 10-yard shot for her sixth goal.

The Hilltoppers were able to keep the Mustangs from scoring again until Martin victimized them twice in the final eight minutes of the second half. She made it 3-0 on a 20-yard shot from just outside the top of the penalty area with 7:19 to go after Sarrah Ludwig did a nice job of winning a loose ball along the left end line and making a pinpoint pass.

Martin then set up the final goal with another corner kick that came in tight to the goal. Glenbard West deflected it but it went right to Brittany Dietz, who scored from 12 yards out with 3:13 remaining.

“We’ve been practicing corners,” Martin said. “I’m used to our field so I think that helps a little bit. We passed it around really well.”

“It was tough with those crosses,” Glenbard West coach Maciek Kusmierz said. “They were driven balls three or four yards in front of the goal. They’re very tough to defend, especially when you have an obvious size disadvantage, and that cost us a couple of goals today.”

The Mustangs have shown no ill effects from suffering their 2-1 loss to top-ranked Neuqua Valley last Saturday, having outscored two opponents by a combined 11-0.

South crushed Proviso East 7-0 on Tuesday as Martin, Ludwig, Kujawa, Flo Beshiri, Cara Doogan, Stephanie Zurales and Nicole Janowiak all found the back of the net. Zurales, a freshman, added three assists, while Kujawa, Lauren Tusek, Rachel Ruggiero and Emily Wauer had one each and goalies Amanda Meyers and Katelyn Laraia combined for the shutout.

Meyers had to make only one save against Glenbard West as defenders Jess Pikul and Kimmy Grimmer were outstanding.

 “There are really no weak spots,” Kujawa said. “Everyone is pretty strong and everyone has been working hard. I think our team chemistry is better this year. We’ve just been moving the ball well and working together and as you can see everyone is taking shots on goal and everyone’s scoring, so it’s just good teamwork.”