Falcons blank St. Ignatius to reach Pepsi Showdown quarters

By Dan Santaromita

It wasn't always pretty, but Wheaton North's 3-0 over St. Ignatius was certainly convincing.

The Falcons scored two goals within two minutes in the first half to pace their third round win in Saturday's Pepsi Showdown at Schaumburg's Olympic Park.

"We did a good job putting pressure on them in the back so they didn't have a chance to possess," Wheaton North coach Tim McEvilly said.

"They like to possess the ball a lot and we did a great deal in the first 60 minutes to disrupt that as much as possible so it gave us a chance to bring more numbers forward."

The Falcons' first two goals aren't going to make any highlight reels but were a shock to a game that appeared fairly even.

After the midway point of the first half, Wheaton North senior Rebekah Marquez put a throw-in across the box.

The ball fell past St. Ignatius goalie Nora Benson and Falcon junior Ashley Oltman was there to score into the open net.

"It was a great throw-in from Bekah and it just kind of slipped through the goalie's hands," Oltman said. "I kind of poked it in."

Only a couple minutes later, senior Monica Rauch scored to give the Falcons a 2-0 lead.

Rauch hit a shot barely over Benson that bounced just past the line after hitting the bottom of the crossbar.

With a two-goal lead in hand, Wheaton North showed more confidence and controlled the game.

"I think scoring a goal fairly early that kind of gave us momentum and that really helped us to get ourselves more into the game," Oltman said.

Junior defender Kate Wiegman scored off of a pretty free kick just after the hour mark to put the game out of reach.

"We're trying to convince (Kate) to do more and more of that," McEvilly said. "She can hit a ball as hard as almost anybody in the state of Illinois off of a restart.

"If we can get her just to get the ball on frame and make a keeper make a save then she is going to have more of those throughout the year."

Despite the praise from her coach, Wiegman wasn't as satisfied.

"I was kind of lucky, the goalie got her hand on it," Wiegman said. "I take a lot of free kicks usually. I'm pretty good at placing them.

"Sometimes during the game the pressure gets to you and I can't always place it where I want it."

Wiegman still prefers her defensive responsibilities to unleashing shots on goal.

"I'm not very good at dribbling because I'm a defender at heart so I like to clear it," she said with a laugh.

After Wiegman's goal. the game lost its fire.

"You could tell after we went up 3-0 that we were awfully tired," McEvilly said. "It's been a long last couple weeks here.

"I think the kids felt comfortable with a 3-0 lead and so we weren't playing as effectively in the last 20 as we had throughout."

Senior goalie Shannon Malahy had three saves for her sixth shutout of the season.

The Falcons will next play at West Chicago Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Then they will take on Glenbrook South Thursday in the Showdown quarterfinals.