Truhlar sparks Cougars past Blackhawks in opener

 

 

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By Curt Herron

A sense of nervousness carried over to both sides during Friday's nonconference matchup between Plainfield South and West Aurora.

For the visiting Cougars, it involved a slow start in their season opener, due largely to the presence of so many new faces in the lineup.

And for the host Blackhawks, it was a case of getting off to a good beginning but then watching things slip away against a charging opponent.

West used a first half goal to grab the early lead before South responded with three straight second half scores to eventually take control.

The Blackhawks converted a late penalty kick to throw some drama back into the match but the Cougars held on to claim a 3-2 victory in Aurora.

Alex Truhlar, one of South's key returnees, led the winners by scoring her team's first and last goal while getting an assist on the other.

"We have a lot of young people on our team and they were all nervous about playing in their first varsity game," Truhlar said. "So we were real shaky in the beginning but we were more relaxed in the second half and we started to calm down.

"Once the first half was over with, we got our heads together and were ready to go in the second half. After I scored our first goal, we were more pumped up and I thought I'd get more passes and be able to pass to my teammates for shots, and that happened.

"We haven't had a lot of time outside or playing 11 on 11 yet and we just started connecting in our last two practices. I like that our team has speed and we have people who can control the ball, have skills and are aggressive, so we should do well this year."

Things started well for the Blackhawks (0-2), who produced more offense during the first half than they did in their opening loss to Naperville North.

West moved ahead in the 32nd minute when Alicia Rotolo sent a line drive that just eluded South keeper Taylor Schwebke's leaping effort.

While the Blackhawks maintained that 1-0 lead until around the mispoint of the second half, coach Laura Wagley could sense a shift in the match.

The knockout punch came during the final 10 minutes when the Cougars (1-0) scored twice within a 1:26-span to grab a decisive two-goal advantage.

"We played some awesome soccer during the first 40 minutes," Wagley said. "We didn't see a lot of offense against Naperville North but today we had our offense going. But in the second half, we came out a little flat and they took advantage of it.

"I told the girls that this was only our second game and that we have 15 more and that we can only go up from here. If we get better in each game, and so far we've done that in our first two games, we'll be okay. You can see that we'll be able to progress."

Wagley liked the combination that she saw in the center midfield from Jessica Saffel and freshman Reilly Kulakowski, who had been at forward.

She was also pleased with the hustle of freshman Sammie O'Brien at forward and the work of sweeper Daniela Bueno in directing things at sweeper.

The Blackhawks threatened to make it 2-0 in the 50th minute when O'Brien got free and had an opportunity for a 1-v-1, but Schwebke made the stop.

Gradually, the Cougars took the initiative, beginning with shots from Alex Giatras and Kelsey Pruett that were denied by keeper Felicia Dattolo.

Then just before the midway mark of the final half, Danielle Dame sent a long pass to Truhlar, who got free and fired off a liner to tie things.

That score seemed to energize coach Kevin Allen's squad, which kept the pressure on during the next 12 minutes before moving in front for good.

"With the young team that we have, they were just nervous and anxious about our first game of the year," Allen said. "We've been practicing against each other for two and a half weeks, so it was finally nice to just get to play against another team.

"We knew that West Aurora had already played a game so we were kind of behind the eight ball. But we just got back to things that were making us successful in practice, like keeping possession and trying to play a little faster.

"Once we started to keep the possession well and began to dominate, we were just hoping that we could get one in and once that happened, then we were able to continue rolling."

In between a pair of shots from Truhlar, the first one cleared by a defender and the other attempt deflected away, Kailyn Haski was also denied.

West also had a good chance during that sequence, but O'Brien's liner from the side was halted by the South keeper as things remained tied up.

That suddenly changed in the 72nd minute when Truhlar sent a ball in front of the net and Haski got a touch on it and put it in the lower corner.

A short time later, Alexandra Goff sent a shot from the side that was deflected but Truhlar knocked in the loose ball to give South a 3-1 lead.

West made things interesting late when it benefitted from a foul in the box in the 78th minute. Kulakowski converted the subsequent penalty kick.

Although the Blackhawks continued to apply the pressure as it searched for the equalizer, the Cougars held them off an came away with a nice win.

"We learned a lot about ourselves today," Allen said. "We didn't give up and the girls really took to heart what we were telling them at halftime and they wanted it a little bit more during the second half.

"Alex was a workhorse in the midfield for us last year but she's too deadly not to have at forward with her shots and her tenacity. And I was also really encouraged by the play of freshman Kelsey Pruett."

 

 

PLAINFIELD SOUTH 2011 PREVIEW

Overall record 2010: 15-7-2, 2nd place SPC Conference

Top returners:
Alex Truhlar (So., M), All-Conference with 7 goals and 5 assists last season.
Taylor Schwebke (Jr., GK), All-Conference, Honorable Mention with a 1.27 goals against average and 11 shutouts last year.
Katie Hamilton (Sr., M), 2 goals and 1 assist last year as a very strong defensive mid.

Outlook: Coach Kevin Allen: " We are extremely young; 3 seniors and 3 juniors. With the 6 seniors we graduated, we lost almost 70% of the goals scored last year. We are going to be tough defensively, but will have to find ways to put the ball in the back of the net. It will be a challenge to repeat the success we had last year because we won't surprise anyone. I feel we made a name for ourselves last year and teams are going to come at us harder this year. We will have a strong conference again, with Plainfield North being the best. Hopefully playing a tough conference schedule will help us make a deep playoff run in a rather daunting sectional, where last year's state champ came from."