Warriors fall flat at Addison Trail
By Matt Le Cren

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Few are the teams that can play poorly and still be victorious.

Willowbrook is not one of them.

The Warriors were shooting for their third win in their last four matches when they traveled to Addison Saturday to take on District 88 rival Addison Trail.

But the visitors came out flat and a late surge wasn’t enough as Addison Trail scored a nice goal midway through the first half and held on for the 1-0 upset.

“Some days you have it and some days you don’t,” Willowbrook coach Pete Montgomery said. “Today was a day when we didn’t have it, unfortunately.”

Coming off Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Leyden, the Warriors (6-12-2, 2-3 West Suburban Gold) were looking to win back-to-back games for just the second time this spring.

But the Blazers (4-12, 2-3) got the jump on them and scored the game’s only goal when Tonia Parisi hammered a shot from outside the box over the head of Willowbrook goalie Shanti Lindberg and under the crossbar.

Addison Trail coach Sergio Nunez said the goal energized his players, who often fall behind by a couple of goals early and then lose confidence. The Blazers continued to put pressure on Willowbrook’s defense, but Lindberg made 10 saves to keep her team in it.

The Warriors, who were shut out for the 10th time, had one golden scoring chance in the first half when sophomore Lindsey Peterson had a breakaway but sent her shot over the crossbar. Little did anyone know the Warriors wouldn’t come close to scoring after that.

“You go into every game thinking you’re going to win,” Montgomery said. “We had a breakaway in the first half that we didn’t convert. Both teams had one really good opportunity and they converted theirs and we didn’t.”

That’s not to say the Blazers didn’t earn the victory; they were clearly the better squad.

“We were outplayed for 60 out of 80 minutes today,” Montgomery said. “That’s the bottom line of the game.

“We didn’t have enough energy. We didn’t have enough focus, we had poor first touches and we didn’t possess the ball the way we should have.”

Willowbrook managed to seize control of the action in the final 20 minutes, when they mustered five shots. But Addison Trail goalie Devin Fruzyna made three saves, including one midway through the period on Peterson, who worked a nice give-and-go with senior Louisa Reese in the box but was denied on a seven-yard shot.

The Warriors got into the box one more time when freshman Natalie Wolski got free around the left corner, but her hard shot from 12 yards out was deflected around the left post by Fruzyna and Peterson’s ensuing corner kick was cleared out of danger by the Addison Trail defense.

“I think when we made the switch and put Louisa Reese up in the center midfield for the last 20 minutes, that was really the spark and I feel like we outplayed them the last 20 minutes,” Montgomery said. “But it wasn’t enough to get one.”

The Warriors can finish .500 in conference play by beating Morton at home on Tuesday in the regular season finale. Willowbrook is the No. 11 seed at the Class 3A Downers Grove South Sectional and opens the playoffs May 16 at No. 6 seed Oak Park and River Forest in a regional semifinal.

Willowbrook has never won a regional championship and last appeared in a regional final in 2000, but Montgomery believes his team is capable of upsetting Oak Park and River Forest.

“We can be much better than we were today,” Montgomery said. “That’s what it boils down to is if we bring our best then we’re a good team and we can challenge just about anybody. But on the days when we’re off a little bit we’re not quite as good as we can be.”