Grace Durante’s hat trick leads Beecher past Manteno 3-1

MANTENO − After a couple of tough losses to open the season, the last two games have seen the Beecher girls soccer team start to find its footing.

After a 5-3 win at home over Wilmington on Friday, the Bobcats hit the road to play Manteno on Monday. The score was tied 1-1 late into the second half, but Beecher’s junior captain Grace Durante, who opened the scoring on a penalty kick in the first half, scored twice more in the final 17 minutes to lead the Bobcats to the win.

Beecher moved to 2-2 with the win, while Manteno, winners of two of their preceding three games, dropped to 2-3 in the early stages of the season.

Durante’s penalty kick goal came after a handball with 11:46 left in the first half. It would stay 1-0 into halftime. Manteno junior Emily Horath got her team on the board, scoring on a penalty kick of her own after a Beecher handball, just over five minutes into the second half.

But Durante and the Bobcats were able to capitalize on a couple of chances, one with just over 17 minutes to go and another on a breakaway about seven minutes later.

Beecher has had to mix in some new faces to replace missing pieces from last year’s regional championship squad, but head coach Jon Kypuros said it has been nice to see this reinforced group start to put things together early in the season.

“It’s just persistence,” he said. “It’s a very new team this year. We lost five starters, so this early in the season it’s just about persistence; staying the course and doing what we know we can do. Our first couple games, things just hadn’t gone our ways but the opportunities were there. We just kept stressing to the girls, it’s persistence and eventually you’re going to break through.”

Durante was the catalyst of the breakthrough in the second half Monday with her go-ahead and insurance goals, and she said the team’s ability to react and respond during games was a key to the win.

“In the first half, it was very even, but our team knows how to picture what’s going on,” Durante said. “We adjust to the teams that we play. We adjusted to this team, because it was very different from the last teams.”

Manteno has alternated wins and losses in the first five games of the year. They dropped the opener 5-1, the picked up a 5-1 win which preceded an 8-0 loss. They were coming off an 8-1 win last Wednesday heading into Monday’s matchup with Beecher.

Head coach Erik Greenquist said the team is working on finding consistency in the season’s opening weeks while also gaining experience as a young roster.

“It wasn’t our best performance,” he said. “We’re young. We do some things well. Things we’ve struggled with over the last few years is matching up with individual players. That No. 1 [Durante], hats off to her. She’s a really good player. But good teams bounce back. Hopefully we learn from this.”

While the Panthers lack experience at this point in the year, Greenquist said that a large number of these new players are helping to bolster the program.

“A lot of underclassmen came out this year,” he said. “It’s the first time in about six years that we’ve had a JV now, and these girls are willing to learn. I don’t have any club players on the team, which sometimes is a struggle. But when girls listen, we might be able to catch some teams later in the season.”

Looking ahead, Monday’s game was the first of four games over six days for Manteno. Beecher has a bit of a lighter week, only playing again Thursday. As the Bobcats move ahead, Durante said that continuing to build up their chemistry will be important.

“It’s very fun getting to know everybody, and we’re all working together at practice, trying really hard, doing team bonding outside of practice,” she said. “I feel like that really comes together and brings a lot on the field.”