Hot and cold: Haski, Truhlar lift Cougars past Tigers

CLICK TO SEE MORE PICTURES

By Bill Scheibe

On a day that even polar bears would have stayed inside under a comfy-old blanket and read a good book, Kailyn Haski warmed up like a space heater for Plainfield South and teammate Alex Truhlar took care of the rest.

After Joliet West started the scoring with a goal that banked in like a bullet off the far-left post, Haski netted a pair of strikes in a 35-second span – the second assisted by Truhlar, who transposed the standard hot-and-cold analogy.

This was cold, then hot.

"It got us really pumped up," Truhlar said of Haski's back-to-back goals. "We lost 2-0 to both JCA and Naperville North, and we had our heads down pretty much. We wanted to come out hard for this game, but we were still playing pretty slow because it was cold.

"That was our first time on turf, too, so we had to get used to it. But when we finally did, we just made magic."

Magical would best describe Truhlar's performance Saturday afternoon. The sophomore center midfielder complemented her first-half assist with a goal and an assist in the second to spark the visiting Cougars to a 4-1 victory over Joliet West at frigid Memorial Stadium.

A freshman forward, Haski helped put South (2-2) into the driver's seat with a 2-1 halftime lead. Senior midfielder Jaime Langlois notched the icing goal, sophomore midfielder Alex Giatras added an assist and senior goalkeeper Taylor Schwebke totaled 10 saves.

Playing without Saint Xavier-bound senior midfielder Marissa Graves, West (0-2-1) struggled to convert after junior midfielder Taylor Adler connected on a quick feed from senior forward Morgan Graves, Marissa's twin sister, for the 1-0 lead at 27:22 left.

Only 3:28 later, however, Haski scored on the rebound of Truhlar's replay of a defended corner kick. Although Haski limped off the field with 3:03 left in the first half and did not return, her goal on a cross from Giatras felt like the jet stream coming up from Florida.

Hot, hot, hot.

"That lit a fire under them," Cougars coach Kevin Allen confirmed. "I think the last four games, we haven't really gotten off to a good start, and that was kind of like, 'Now we have to wake up.' It was cold, but dealing with the weather, they have to play in the same thing.

"You couldn't ask for anything better, for a better way to respond, than Kailyn's goals. It was not only getting one goal, but 35 seconds later getting a second one. That got us going and we were able to handle the elements today and take it to them."

Said Haski: "It brought us up and got our energy going again. We have been starting kind of slow, but we have to follow through strong, finish the half and play it minute by minute."

The opening minutes were Herculean strong for West, which jumped ahead 1-0 when Graves slid a pass into the space. Adler deked past a pair of defenders and dribbled deep into the box before burying her shot from a tough angle.

"I feel like we can have more of that if we can get the ball up top more," Adler said. "I think we're struggling in the midfield and we're not getting as many opportunities as we should in our (offensive) third of the field."

"We were strong during the first half going into the wind and it being super cold," West coach Jeff Lundeen said. “"We were hoping that coming out in the second half with the wind we would be able to do something with it. But Plainfield South didn't let down."

Nor did the Cougars let up against the Tigers, who were shorthanded without Marissa Graves. Last year, Graves recorded 10 goals and 12 assists, but an MRI done on her right knee earlier Saturday revealed no structural damage to her ACL. Lundeen hoped she might be able to play "soon."

It cannot come soon enough for her twin sister Morgan, who managed 24 goals and 10 assists last spring. She unleashed the best shot of the game toward the far-right post with 17:53 left and later forced Schwebke into a leaping save on a left-footed shot toward the crossbar.

Frustrating, huh?

"About those chances," Graves said, shaking her head. "They'll keep coming and eventually I'll put them in. If we keep the chances going, we'll start putting them into the back of the net."

"They had a couple of opportunities, we had a couple of opportunities, and we weren't able to stop them when they countered," Lundeen said. "The cold didn't seem to affect them very much."

The effect of Haski hitting paydirt twice within 35 seconds in the first half carried over to the final 40 minutes. She settled the cross from Giatras, turned on a dime and drilled the eventual game-winner past junior goalkeeper Courtney Robinson (6 saves).

"The second one felt better than the first one," said Haski, who was injured in a collision symbolic of the overall physical matchup. "I found the corner on that one."

With 24:01 to go in the second half, Truhlar turned the corner for the 3-1 lead, leaving a host of Tiger defenders in her wake as she worked across the top of the box and buried a shot into the far-left corner. Langlois closed the scoring on the rebound of a Truhlar shot.

Those two goals occurred mere minutes after a couple of near-misses by Graves – "They counterattacked really well and that's what we need to work on, our transitioning," she said – and with Haski sitting on the Cougars' bench. Truhlar, though, downplayed her pick-me-up effort.

"It wouldn't have made a difference if I picked up the slack or not," she said. "This team is really, really precise with everything. We played it on the ground and we placed perfect through balls and perfect passes. We were a little bit touchy, but it wouldn't have made a difference."

Except Truhlar truly did.

CLICK TO SEE COUGARS' TEAM PAGE