Falcons fall in 2 OT to highly-touted Conant
By Gary Larsen

 

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Drew Wentzel didn't leap into the air or pump her first, or even let out a holler. The Conant junior just stood there, waiting for the mob of teammates that was charging across the field to engulf her.

Wentzel's casual reaction came after her 30-yard overtime free kick burned a path just under the crossbar, where no goalkeeper could have reached it. Wetzel's strike in a second overtime period gave Conant a 3-2 win over Wheaton North, in opening-round play of this year's Naperville Invitational.

Wentzel's game-winner came on the north end of the field at Wheaton North, one year after she scored from almost an identical spot on the field's south end in a 2-0 win over Rockford-Boylan.

"I didn't have enough time to figure out how to celebrate," Wentzel said. "Last year at least I had a celebration."

Celebration or not, Wentzel was just glad to avoid the ultimate fate of so many overtime games. "We just don't like PKs at all and the sooner we can get a goal, the sooner we can go home and the stress is off our shoulders," she said.

In Conant (11-1), Wheaton North (6-6) took on a team ranked high in the local polls and the Falcons took the Cougars to two overtimes with a solid defensive effort and opportunistic scoring.

"It's more of a mindset and I think our team kept it together really well against them tonight," North keeper Jessica Kiely said. "It's just unfortunate that we lost. The most challenging part was just how fast their top three moved. Our defense works so hard and it's just disappointing that we're so close and lose by just that little sliver."

Conant and Wheaton North traded punches through 80 minutes of soccer. Kiely made a diving stop in the game’s opening minutes, and Conant hit the post on a shot taken after the ensuing corner kick.

Cougars’ keeper Haley Anderson kept the slate clean to halftime when she left her line to stuff a shot taken from 8 yards out, Wentzel cleared a ball from the goalmouth, and fellow defender Kim Trinco stopped a shot inside the six.

A scoreless first half gave way to four goals scored in the second. The Cougars struck first when Sammie van de Linde took a ball deep up the left side and fired from 18 yards out at 43 minutes. Kiely rose up to get a hand on it but the ball found its way under the crossbar.

Wheaton North’s Lyndi Armstrong and van de Linde fought tooth-and-nail against each other all night on the outside.

Conant’s lead lasted five minutes. Wheaton North midfielder Sydney Sharkey popped a ball up from 18 yards out and Anderson suffered a similar fate to Kiely when Sharkey’s shot fell under the crossbar to tie the game.

Conant regained the lead when Sam Armando struck from 20 yards out, with Kiely diving left and getting a hand on it before the shot ricocheted in off the post.  The Falcons answered quickly again when Sarah Weatherred sent a through-ball ahead at 60 minutes.

North freshman Lexi Pelafas ran onto it behind the Cougars’ defense, stayed composed, and buried the shot inside the post to her left with Anderson coming out.

"I was a little disappointed that we couldn't hold a lead,” Conant coach Jason Franco said. “I don't know if it was a fatigue thing but it's something we'll have to talk about. We can't allow teams to do that. They weren't breaking us down regularly, and then we hand them a breakaway. But that's stuff we can fix and sometimes you have to win ugly."

The final 20 minutes of regulation play saw Kiely field a hard-hit cross at the near post and Anderson make a quality save at 77 minutes.

Through 80 minutes of soccer, the Falcons were happy to keep one of the state’s top attacking players in Conant’s Courtney Raetzman out of the scoring column.

"I've seen Courtney play lots of games now and I don't know if I've seen her have less of an imprint on a game," North coach Tim McEvilly said. "I thought Anne Denz did a fantastic job of staying with her for ninety percent of the game. Anne's got the ability and the intelligence to do that.”

Conant’s attack found another gear in the overtime periods. van de Linde charged the post and fired just wide, one minute into the first overtime, teammate Leah Celarek went wide from 20 yards out, and Kiely saved a shot four minutes into the period.

The Cougars earned a trio of corner kicks in the first overtime, van de Linde dribbled up with Armstrong on her hip and fired a shot that Kiely saved, and Raetzman laid off a ball inside the penalty area that Alyssa Altosino sent just high from 17 yards out.

With time winding down in the first overtime, Raetzman blistered a shot from close range at the post but Kiely was on the spot to snare and hold onto the blast.

"Courtney got loose once tonight, she got a rip, and (Kiely) made a really solid, technical save and gave up no rebound," McEvilly said. "She's still learning but when she's patient and stays on her line, she makes big saves for us."

At that point, Franco figured fate had other plans than to allow a goal to be scored on the field of play.

"The one Courtney had at the post -- she's a left-sided player and she doesn't miss that very often," Franco said. "After that I thought 'this is going to penalty kicks'.

"But all of our attacking players got involved in overtime. Sam Armando comes in and plays up top and holds the ball for us, our wingers, Sammie and Leah were both dangerous, and our center mids did a pretty good job of keeping the ball in front, and the same with our backs. They didn't break us down in overtime at all. It was one of those 'where was that for the sixty minutes before?' But I think maybe we wore (Wheaton North) down a little bit."

van de Linde sent a shot high to start the second overtime, and then five minutes in she took a pass from Raetzman and earned a foul call on the Falcons, setting up Wentzel’s big, game-winning boot.

The frozen rope that Wentzel hit seemed to surprise her as much as it stunned the crowd.

"Get it on frame where at least someone can attack it," Wentzel said. "Usually when you think it's going to miss, it drops right below the crossbar. When you think it's going to go just below the crossbar, that's when it usually drops into the goalie's hands. I thought that one was going over."

"It's a great finish," McEvilly said. "It's one of those where one in every thirty or forty balls finish -- well-struck and good composure."

"Lyndi Armstrong was marking (van de Linde), who probably had thirty pounds on her, and they battled all night. She had a nice strong game for us. And I really believe that Linnae (Giuliano) has the ability to be one of the best defensive players in the state. She's a Division I-caliber center back. Sarah Weatherred played well tonight, Emily played holding mid, and Maddie Stubitz is now doing well in the middle for us."

"When you play teams of this caliber, those little mistakes are the difference, and our girls realize that we should be winning fifty percent of these games against top teams. We can compete with the best teams in the state and we did that tonight.”

Franco tipped his hat to the Falcons and assessed his girls' play.

"They were very solid defensively and they had a couple of fast girls up top. They waited for us to make a mistake, and we did,” Franco said. "The first half it was below (expectations), in the second half we started to find it a little bit, and in the overtimes we found it. That was what I wanted more regularly. It takes a lot of effort and I think the closeness to the end of the game kind of drove our girls a little bit."

Wentzel liked the effort she saw in Conant’s attack throughout the overtime periods.

"I've got to give credit to all our forwards and midfielders," Wentzel said. "They worked their butts off. Sometimes it's easy to sit back as a defense but I've played up top on my club team and my hat's off to them.  And I like how my goalie (Anderson) played. She did a nice job.

"We play really well in the first ten minutes but if we don't get a result, it's not that we have our heads down but I think we start to panic a little bit when what we're doing isn't working. If we're getting a little unlucky, not getting it on frame, the ball's not going our way ... we sometimes end up having to really pick it up in the last ten minutes of a half. We just need to keep it more consistent."