Cougars prevail 2-1 over St. Charles North

By Mike Garofola

 

With a few moments of brilliance, two-time all-state striker Courtney Raetzman validated her lofty status with a pair of sensational scoring strikes to give Conant a lead it would never relinquish on Thursday, en route to a thrilling 2-1 victory over visiting St. Charles North in Hoffman Estates.

The four-year Cougars' star drew her club level at 23 minutes with a highlight film cracker from 25 yards, and struck again less than 60 seconds later when she broke free from a pair of defenders before finishing with the touch of a surgeon to stun the North Stars (0-1-1), which also opened its season with a terrific 80-minute performance.

"Those were two great goals from (Courtney) - I mean, what can you say," began Conant head coach Jason Franco.

"She can do a lot of great things out there, and she did when we needed her. But what a game for both sides and fans. It had that playoff atmosphere to it, and I thought (St. Charles) played very well all throughout this match, and once we got ourselves back in it I thought we did as well."

"It was a fantastic atmosphere out there tonight," agreed Raetzman.

"We had a really easy (5-0) result the other day in our opener, but these are the type of games we all need to be a part of, especially our young players, who we're going to be counting on when we get into really important games later on and into the state tournament."

Stars head coach Ruth Vostal, who has never opened the season this early during her 12-years at the helm, could not have been more pleased with her side’s effort on the road, against an opponent which returns most of its first-11 from a club which brought home the 3A third-place trophy last June.

"We've got a lot of first-time varsity players this year (10) but we've been like that during the past three seasons," began Vostal.

"But I really felt the effort was there all throughout, and there were so many positive things we saw out there tonight, and when we get back Alex (Gage) - who will be a key figure in the middle as our playmaker, we’ll be that much better."

"Others really stepped up and did very well, and we can leave her tonight feeling good about our start to the season."

From the opening whistle, the Stars played as if it were its 10th match of the season instead of its first, showing a knack for connecting through the middle of the park. Natalie Winkate and the strike-force duo of Lauren Koehl and Sophie Pohl created trouble for the Cougars backline.

"I really thought we controlled the first 15-20 minutes at the start, and did a lot of good things considering how young of a team we are," offered the senior co-captain, Koehl.

With the aforementioned Winkates winning the air war, and 50-50 challenges, and the Stars’ backline keeping Raetzman and her mates under wraps, the run of play was clearly going one way in the first quarter hour, leading up to the first goal of the game at 15 minutes.

The Cougars inability to deal with a Kelly Manski corner properly allowed the visitors to keep the ball alive in the box long enough to fall to Winkates, who wasted little time in slotting past freshmen keeper Haley Anderson, who clearly had no chance to react quickly enough to stop the low-driven shot from the Stars’ junior.

"The way (St. Charles) opened and played the first 15-20 minutes really scared me - I thought we were going to be in trouble all night long," admitted Franco.

The Stars came right back down after their first goal and nearly got another, but Anderson turned Koehl's fierce strike away and out of danger.

Franco brought on freshmen Leah Celarek and the rookie almost immediately made her presence felt in the Cougars attack. Although her first shot went wide of keeper Carly Dietrich, it was Celarek’s pace and energy which helped jumpstart the home side, while forcing the Stars to keep an eye on someone other than Raetzman.

No matter.

Raetzman would come back to collect a loose ball at 30 yards, and after turning on a dime, the senior carried forward for a moment, before unleashing a searing missile high into the back of the net from 25 yards. Dietrich could only wave at it, as the pace of the shot was too hot to handle.

Seconds later Raetzman did it again, this time after a short clear out of the back allowed her to beat two markers just outside the box, where she used one touch to gain enough space to go past Dietrich to give the Cougars their first lead.

"Courtney is such a great player, and there wasn't much we could do about those two goals, but an adjustment at the break - moving sophomore Jenny Barr - who is not a marking back (over) to cover her in the second half really paid off for us. She did a good job marking Courtney for the next 40 minutes," said Vostal.

"We had some good momentum going for us, but those goals kind of set us back a little bit," admitted Koehl, "but I thought we recovered and played well in the second half."

The match settled in after the break, with the Cougars looking for that all-important third goal and 2-goal lead, while the Stars searched for the equalizer.

Kim Trinco's tackle on Pohl likely saved a potential scoring opportunity for the Stars at 47 minutes, and Sammi van de Linde's shot forced a save from Dietrich two minutes later.

A nicely played 1-2 from Sam Armando to Raetzman led to a quality tackle by Jorie Clawson just inside the 18 to end the hopes of the Cougars at 68 minutes. Shortly thereafter, van de Linde flashed a well-paced ball across the face of the goal from the left side, but none of her mates were on the other end to finish as the action continued to go box-to-box for the final quarter hour of regulation.

"I thought even before Courtney's two goals we began to do some good stuff - stringing passes, knocking the ball around, and creating chances," began Franco.

"Lauren (Koehl) was a real handful for us all night, and their backline was physical and quick. But we responded well to a little adversity. (Trinco), Kelsey Foss and Drew (Wentzel), although not a hundred percent, all did well in the second half along the back.

"Again, it was a great early season game, and I came away really impressed with St. Charles, and with the way we played in this playoff atmosphere."