Vikings blank Corsairs to advance to sectional play

By Dan Santaromita

Fremd coach Steve Keller insists his team can play better but their performance Friday night in Palatine was better than he would lead you to believe.

The Vikings, the two-seed in the Palatine sectional, won the Class 3A Fremd Regional with a 2-0 win over Carmel, the seven-seed, after severe weather delayed the start for an hour.

This marks Fremd's sixth straight regional championship. Next up is a match with third-seeded Mundelein on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Keller is missing four regulars, but his team is adjusting to playing with some new faces.

"I think we're still adjusting to a couple people in some new roles and a couple girls getting a lot more playing time than they normally do," he said. "That takes time and fortunately we played well enough to win, but if we want to continue to advance it's got to be a lot better.

"It’s a process now of getting (the new) girls understanding and in the flow of things. It's not really pretty."

The Vikings (15-4-2) showed better chemistry and midfield play than their first game (a 1-0 win over Prospect on May 11) without the missing starters.

"After the first game, we've adjusted a lot better and now we can actually put some passes together," midfielder Alexis Tice said.

"We're getting along better and we know what each other is going to do more so we can feed off that."

Tice was excellent at winning 50-50 balls and moving the ball forward to forwards Michelle Mottonen, Crystal Rohan and Elise Kotsakis.

Early on, Fremd created more chances and nearly broke the ice in the sixth minute.

Sophomore Emily Basten headed a Mottonen corner kick past Carmel goalkeeper Maddie Allen, but Allen's defense was able to clear it off the line.

In the 17th minute, Basten was at it again. She lobbed a ball towards Rohan that bounced over two Corsair defenders. Rohan positioned herself perfectly and volleyed it into the net.

"It was a wet game so it does bounce a lot and we just had to get on the end of (lobs and crosses) and shoot low so that they could kind of bounce into the goal so it's harder for the goalie to save in weather like this," Kotsakis said.

Fremd almost doubled its lead in the 31st minute but Allen made a fabulous save. Kotsakis gathered a loose ball less than 10 yards from goal and ripped it on net.

Allen was not only able to make the save but she punched it to the right to prevent a rebound opportunity.

The Corsairs had the run of play to start the second half but were unable to get through the strong Fremd defense. Defenders Danielle Romano and Kathleen Holmberg both had superb games.

With Carmel finally building momentum, the Vikings pounced on a counterattack opportunity to claim a 2-0 lead. Rohan hit a perfect through ball to Kotsakis who made the finish look easy.

This seemed to deflate Carmel, allowing Fremd multiple chances to add a third score over the next several minutes, but the Corsairs regained their composure and came ever so close to getting within one.

With 10 minutes to play, Kassidy Brown ripped a wicked shot towards Fremd keeper Allison Norenberg (5 saves), who made the initial save but the ball bounced away from her and towards the goal.

Then, amazingly, it hit the post and sat still on the wet turf. That play symbolized the Corsairs' day.

Coach John Halloran's side created some quality chances but couldn't find the net.

"We made a couple mistakes in the back," Halloran said. "Against a team like Fremd you can't do that and we didn't catch a break going forward.

"I can't fault the effort at all. I think we gave it everything that we had. We came up short and that's the nature of the game sometimes."

Despite the win, Keller still expects more of his team.

"I think we played well enough to get the job done," he said. "There are still parts of our game that we got to improve on.

"We've played better during the season than we are right now. We gave up the chance that hit the post, a couple free kicks that were tough calls that we got to eliminate. You keep doing that those things are going to cost you in the long run."

"We always have more to work on, but we definitely feel confident in our team," Kotsakis said. "We have a really strong team right now and we've gotten a lot better throughout the season so I hope that will carry onto the next game."

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