Minooka plays with heavy hearts

MINOOKA – The Minooka High School girls soccer team wore headbands and wristbands with the No. 18 and a pink ribbon on them during a 4-0 non-conference loss to Andrew Saturday morning.

That’s because athletics took a backseat to the news that hit the program earlier in the week when starting goalkeeper Sam Gewalt was diagnosed with leukemia.

Gewalt, a senior, was all-Southwest Prairie Conference a year ago and earned all-SPC honors for the Indians’ league championship girls golf team in the fall.

“She was a starter for us, all-conference last year, a real good keeper and a real good person,” Brolley said of Gewalt, who also was a manager for the SPC and Danville regional champion girls basketball team in the winter.

“It’s been a hard week for everybody,” Brolley said. “We got headbands and wristbands. We saw her a couple of days ago. We took a bus to see her. It’s a tough situation.”

Making it extra tough was a game Andrew squad, which scored three goals in the first half. The Thunderbolts (1-4-2) added another goal late in the second half to win their first game.

“I think we wanted to play today, but in the end, I think our minds were somewhere else,” Brolley said.

Minooka dropped to 4-5.

“Andrew came in here and beat the heck out of us, let’s be honest,” Brolley said. “They fought for it and won. We have to pick up the pieces. We’re under .500 again.”

Three of Andrew’s four goals came as a direct result of one-on-one situations with the Indians keeper.

“We got a game in and competed a little bit, but that’s about it,” Brolley said. “We didn’t practice Wednesday or Thursday and had a short practice Friday. I didn’t expect high school girls to be ready to play today.”

Gewalt posted four shutouts a year ago for Minooka, which already has as many losses this year as all of last year (11-5-2).

“She’s a competitor and she wants me to give her the tape,” Brolley said of Gewalt. “I’m not going to give her this tape. I’m going to burn the tape.”