Wildcat offensive struggles continue against Huskies

By Curt Herron

Both Naperville North and Plainfield Central snapped losing streaks on Thursday and hoped to carry that momentum over to their meeting at Friday's Lemont Cup.

The inability to score goals was obvious during the recent stretches as the Huskies had only one goal in three matches and the Wildcats had none in four games.

North put three scores on the board in a 3-1 conference victory over Wheaton North while Central managed a goal to claim a 1-0 league win over Plainfield East.

While the Wildcats again struggled to find the net on Friday, the Huskies duplicated their efforts from the night before, thanks in large part to Rycke Guiney.

The Huskie senior set up two scores on well-placed corner kicks and later connected on a long shot attempt of her own as North captured a 3-0 victory in Lemont.

North assistant coach Ryan Kuehne hopes that his team is finally getting back on the right track as it prepares for postseason competition.

Click to hear coach Ryan Kuehne interview

With the win, the Huskies (10-5-2) advance to Saturday's 11:45 a.m. semifinals against Lemont, which claimed a 1-0 victory over Lincoln-Way East.

If North gets past that game, it runs into the winner of the semifinal matchup between Waubonsie Valley and Sandburg in the 5 p.m. championship.

Meanwhile, Central (7-12) dropped into Saturday's 10 a.m. consolation bracket matchup against another team that's struggling offensively, Lincoln-Way East.

Although the Huskies had plenty of good scoring chances during the initial part of the first half, the Wildcats did a good job of keeping them at bay.

Nearly 17 minutes elapsed before North put a threatening shot on goal, when Tori Novak was stopped in front and then Central's Lauren Kulaga cleared the ball.

The Huskies followed up on that effort in quick order with a floater from Hunter Drendel and a liner from Ellen Campbell that were both halted.

With just over 12 minutes left before the break, Jamie Meno lined a long free kick toward the net and a short time later, Campbell was stopped on another liner.

Things finally clicked for North with 7:12 remaining in the first half when Guiney sent in her initial successful corner kick.

After the loose ball bounced around for awhile, Kristina Dolak knocked in an attempt from directly in front of the net to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead.

Click to hear Kristina Dolak interview

North had a couple of other good chances during the final minutes of the half but Guiney and Dolak were both stopped on line drive attempts.

Central didn't manage to put any shots on goal against Huskies keeper Ellie Flessner during opening half of play.

Emily Janacek, Caroline Casas, Dolak and Meno led the defensive effort which ultimately led to North's ninth shutout of the season.

The Huskies only had one shot on goal during the first 10 minutes of the new half, which was a grounder from Campbell shortly after the break.

They almost grabbed a 2-0 lead with just over 24 minutes left when Christa Szalach chipped a short shot toward the net but it bounced off the crossbar.

A little less than a minute later, Guiney executed another successful corner kick that gave North a 2-0 advantage.

With 23:17 remaining, Guiney's corner went in front of the net and Adrienne Schertz was right there to head the ball in for the score.

Angela Widlacki was stopped on a short shot try about seven minutes later which was deflected away and resulted in another corner kick.

But Guiney didn't utilize a dead ball situation to collect her only score and her team's third goal of the match.

After Brie Siebert passed the ball back toward her, Guiney fired off a long-range attempt that sailed just under the crossbar with 12:50 left.

The Wildcats finally had a good scoring chance with about six minutes remaining when Amanda Jensen sent a grounder toward the net which was stopped.

That turned out to be the lone shot on goal for Central, which received a score from Taylor Caldwell in its win over Plainfield East on Thursday.

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