It didn’t take Katie Hertz long to fit back in with her teammates on the Sandburg girls soccer team.
Monday night she returned from a week-long trip to Europe with her regional team that won seven games as part of the Olympic development program.
On a frigid Tuesday night, joining her teammates for the first time this season, she scored the only goal to give the Eagles a 1-0 victory over SICA West rival Lincoln-Way.
“My legs were frozen,” Hertz said, “but your mind is on the game so much that you forget about those things.”
With the temperature dropping into the 20s and the wind chill taking it down to who-knows-what depths, Sandburg attacked early in the first half.
Oddly, it was a pass from Megan Nesci that found Hertz for the score with 25:25 left in the half. Oddly, because only three minutes into the game, Nesci lost a contact lense.
But Nesci played on. She somehow spotted Hertz in the middle of the field and the forward blasted the ball past Lincoln-Way goalkeeper Melissa Hardy.
Lincoln-Way (1-3) put on a furious push late in the game. But Sandburg goalkeeper Katie Boll came up with two terrific saves to preserve the shutout–one of the shots a high bullet from Lincoln-Way sophomore Lauren Coffey.
“When you’re going against a girl like Katie Hertz, it’s tough,” said Lincoln-Way coach Brian Papa, who said the cold made it difficult for both teams.
Sandburg coach Peter Follenweider, whose team is 5-0 and has allowed just one goal this season, is looking to build on last year’s second-place state finish. “We’ve got only six seniors on the roster and Hertz and Boll are juniors,” Follenweider said.
One of those seniors, Maggie Harris, is coming off knee surgery and Follenweider said she’ll be back in two weeks. He also has freshman Lizzy Coghill, who came off the bench Tuesday.
“They’ve (Lincoln-Way) been dominant in recent years,” said Follenweider, who finally beat the Knights in last year’s sectional final. “Now we are starting to come on.”
