Wildcats fall to Conant in Naperville Invite opener

By Paul LaTour

Standing outside the penalty area for a postgame interview, Noelle Leary couldn’t keep from looking back toward the vacated goal as she answered questions.

Neuqua Valley had just suffered a 3-1 defeat to Conant at Naperville Central in the opening game of pool play for the Naperville Invitational on Thursday. Leary scored the Wildcats’ goal, but knew her team had many other opportunities to put the ball into the net Leary now stared at.

“I just wish a couple of them would have gone in,” Leary said. “We had all these chances after (my) goal, but it was just unlucky. This is the most unpredictable sport. A ball can hit your shin and bounce at so many different angles. It just wasn’t in our favor.”

Neuqua (11-2-1) lost for the second time this week after running off a 10-game winning streak. But the loss to the Cougars was a bit easier to handle than the one to Waubonsie Valley on Monday when the Wildcats were badly outplayed.

“We were very pleased with the fight we had in us in the second half,” Neuqua coach Joe Moreau said. “We weren’t happy with how we played against Waubonsie, but this game I’m not upset at all in terms of how we played. Anything after the first 20 minutes of the game, we controlled a lot of the play.”

The Wildcats fell behind in the 24th minute when Cougars defender Kelsey Foss scored the first of her two goals on restarts. Foss ripped a shot along the ground from just outside the penalty area that somehow eluded the wall and goalkeeper Alexa Wilde, who finished with four saves.

The lead went to 2-0 in the 46th minute when forward Courtney Raetzman dribbled through defenders in the penalty area before slipping a pass to Kaitlin Cheiro, who buried the shot.

Neuqua got back into it just over 10 minutes later when Leary scored on a shot from the left side. Freshman Gianna Dal Pozzo picked up the assist.

It took the Cougars (7-2) less than five minutes to respond as Foss again scored on a free kick from just outside the penalty area. She sent a high shot from the top left corner of the box to the upper 90 on the far side of the net.

The Wildcats had several chances to get back into it, but couldn’t get anything past Lindsay Fillingim, who finished with five saves.

Dal Pozza had several scoring chances go awry in the game. With the game still 2-1, Dal Pozza got behind Fillingim and had a wide open goal to shoot at. But two Cougar defenders squeezed in to cut her off, forcing Dal Pozza to rush a shot that went wide.

The Wildcats complete pool play against Andrew at 7 p.m. today, also at Naperville Central.