Tigers fall to defending state champs in regional opener

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By Gary Larsen

Plainfield North sits on the doorstep, with one more door to open before its young program can take the next step forward and truly run with the big dogs in Illinois high school soccer.

The Tigers will have to wait one more year.

North’s 3-0 loss to Hinsdale Central in a Class 3A regional game put its growth on hold until 2011, when coach Jane Crowe hopes to see a young squad turn the corner.

“We’re so young and we play like it in these types of games,” she said. “(Hinsdale Central) is a bunch of juniors and seniors and they play like it. They’ve been in big games, they’ve been in a state championship game, and they have that urgency to do well.”

The Tigers won 20 games this season and were seeded seventh in the Naperville Central sectional -- arguably the toughest sectional in Illinois this year.

The defending state champion Red Devils went 8-12-1 and were seeded tenth, but Central plays a schedule loaded with top-10 teams and Crowe knew what her girls were up against.

“We’ve had a good season but you have to step it up when it gets to the regionals,” Crowe said. “If you play at the same level you’ve played at all year, you’re not going to be ready because every team steps it up in the regionals. We just haven’t done that.”

“I think a lot of our players still have the mentality that ‘we’re young and we’re going to have our opportunity later’. But soon enough, that opportunity is gone.”

The Tigers were conference champs for the second consecutive season and have a roster loaded with sophomores and freshmen.

North came out hard against the Red Devils and applied heavy pressure on goalkeeper Melissa Boduch early on. Boduch was up to the task, however, turning away five shots through the game’s 15th minute.

“I thought we outplayed them in the first half. They only had two three chances in the first half and they finished two of them,” Crowe said.

Central scored in the 17th and 28th minutes on goals by Molly Gaffney and Jackie Gutman, and then again just five minutes into the second half when Mallory Feinstein got behind the Tigers’ back line.

Callie O’Donnell, Ashley Handwork, Stephanie Barr, Ashley Auble, Anna O’Donnell, and Katie Cox all helped the Tigers attack well in the first half, for an attack that scored more than 90 goals this season.

All except one of those players will return next year. Wednesday starters Kelsey Gill, Hayley Wegrzyn, Kelsey Allen, and Paige Polonus will also return, but the loss to graduation of the senior Barr will be hard to swallow. Barr completed a four-year varsity career with Wednesday’s loss.

“We had one senior for us on the field, the entire game,” Crowe said. “That’s good news because we’re only losing one player, but she’s going to be a big loss.”

“I think she started every game for four years, she’s been a captain for four years, and I can’t even imagine us stepping out on the field without her. She’s meant that much to our program. She’s an awesome, awesome kid. She has a great attitude, she’s great with the younger players, and she does everything for us.”

Crowe anticipates a solid season next year and hopes her young squad learned something from the loss to Hinsdale Central.

“I’m disappointed today but I can’t be disappointed in the season,” Crowe said. “We got better throughout the season. But today we just didn’t have that extra sense of urgency that you need.”

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