Second-half surge gets it done for Fremd

By Darryl Mellema

About all Wheaton-Warrenville South didn't do in the first half of Friday's Naperville Invitational contest with Fremd was score.

But that seemingly minor omission proved critical when the Vikings recovered at halftime and got their attack flowing toward the Tigers goal in the Pool H contest which was played at Wheaton North's Rexilius Field.

Fremd won the contest 2-0 thanks to second half goals by Jennifer Freeman and Elise Kotsakis. In order to score, a team has to control the ball, and the Vikings (8-1-1) hardly saw the ball in the opening 40 minutes. But the second half resurgence allowed Steve Keller's team to win its third straight match.

“We talked about that they were a step ahead of us and anticipating better and were first to the ball more,” Keller said. “We talked about us doing that in the second half and I think that our girls did a great job. They were first to everything.”

Kotsakis firmly signaled Fremd's renewed intentions 17 minutes into the half when she had a shot saved by Kelsey Graham, though the Vikings earned a corner kick.

“They are a good team and they put a lot of pressure on us,” Kotsakis said. “We just had to learn how to deal with it in the second half. We began to play off each other and play one-touch more.”

From that right-sided kick, Fremd took the lead when Freeman's cross tipped off Graham's gloves and went into the net.

“I said to my assistants that I could smell (a goal) coming,” Keller said. “You could feel that we were about to break through. We were fortunate on the corner but that's good play. And the second one was a brilliant goal.”

Ahead 1-0, Fremd achieved a higher fluency with its attacking moves. Michelle Mottonen, Jenny Winberg and Kotsakis were full of mutual passing and movement and they stretched the Tigers defense.

“It was neat to watch them,” Keller said. “Everything they did was right. They possessed the ball, they went wide with it, they went back and got it and combined with one another. They made the right decisions and were very composed.”

And Fremd began to get some shots on goal as well. With 10 minutes left in the match, Kotsakis shaped up from easily 25 yards and hit a thunderbolt that soared into the net.

“The whole game, I was trying to shoot high because we weren't getting a lot of shots,” Kotsakis said. “I kept taking shots and one of them went in.”

Like the rest of the crowd at Rexilius Field, Kotsakis knew the ball was headed goalward as she hit it. “You kind of know it's going to go in the net when it hits your foot like that,” Kotsakis said.

When the match ended, Fremd's second half brilliance stood out over whatever was keeping the team from working as cohesively in the opening 40 minutes.

“That was our best half, I think, that we've put together of the year,” Keller said.

Wheaton Warrenville South (9-2-1) has been hot recently. The Tigers saw their four-game losing streak snapped with the loss, though goalscoring has been a bit of a problem recently. Earlier this week, the Tigers defeated Wheaton North 1-0 and then needed overtime to defeat Benet 1-0.

“In the first half, we were dominating and getting chances,” Wheaton Warrenville South defender Rachel Adomshick said. “We just couldn't put them in the back of the net. Then in the second half, when we got scored on, we didn't respond. It's frustrating.”

The Tigers weren't without good first half chances either. Bridget Shrigley had a free kick saved midway through the half, Fremd goalkeeper Allison Norenberg had to save at Kate Fowee's feet and Dana Miller had a strong shot saved.

But the best chance came moments before Kotsakis sealed the match when Heidi Ansiel hit a ball that had not been cleared from the penalty area across the face of the goal only to see the fierce shot go wide.

Already behind a goal at that point, things got worse moments later when Kotsakis hit her hard shot into the net.

“We're not scoring a whole lot of goals so we're asking ourselves to play perfectly defensively,” Callipari said. “Their first goal was deflating and you can kind of see how things unraveled. Then we had to go forward in numbers and (Fremd) played with a lot of composure.”

Wheaton Warrenville South has key DuPage Valley Conference matches on its horizon against West Chicago and Glenbard North before returning next weekend to invitational play.

“We were confident we could come out and put on a good show, and we did in the first half,” Adomshick. “We sort of lost it in the second half.”

Callipari said his team's game with Benet on Thursday may have impacted the Tigers second half performance.

“I was really concerned with the pace of the game and having played (Thursday) night,” Callipari said. “I was worried that their impact players would have the stamina and be able to maintain that pace. So we wanted the ball to do a little more of the movement in the second half and that really didn't happen.”