BARRINGTON — Buffalo Grove girls soccer player Allie Ingham was stopped as she walked off the wet, snowy pitch at Barrington High School early Monday evening.
“Is this fun?” she was asked.
“It’s kind of fun, but not really,” Ingham said. “It’s fun to slide, but not to miss your passes because of the snow.”
A midseason game between two of the area’s two best girls soccer teams — won 3-2 by Buffalo Grove — turned into one of the more bizarre contests of the season Monday, featuring two own goals and a snow-plowing golf cart.
Flurries at the start of the game became more intense as the game went on. At halftime, a golf cart driven by a trainer attempted to clear snow from the sidelines. It was a temporary reprieve from the wintry mix as by the second half, the entire turf field was blanketed in snow, making footing treacherous.
“It’s slippery. It’s hard to change directions,” Buffalo Grove senior forward Kelli Zickert said. “Everybody’s playing in it, so you just have to deal with it.”
Buffalo Grove (9-0-0, 4-0-0 MSL) handled the conditions a bit better than Barrington (5-1-2, 4-1), at least in the first half. The Bison scored twice when balls that deflected off Fillies defenders found the back of the net. At the 19:23 mark, Zickert was credited with the second goal on a play that started with her launching a corner kick from the right side. It skipped through the box untouched until it found the foot of a Fillies defender. The ball re-directed over goalkeeper Hannah Luedtke for a fluky goal and a 2-0 Buffalo Grove lead.
The Bison allowed the Fillies to trim the margin in half, but got an insurance goal from Ingham that made it 3-1 with 11:02 left in the game. Happy to escape with a 3-2 victory, Bison players said they hope to have seen the last of snowy soccer this spring, but not the last of conference rival Barrington.
“We’re going to see them again, I hope,” Zickert said.
