Wildcats battle but fall to Plainfield North

 

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By Gary Larsen

You’d be hard-pressed to find two more active players on a soccer field than Plainfield Central’s Lauren Kulaga and Kelsey Graefen, providing the intensity that coach Ken Schoen would like to see his young squad learn to put forth every time out.

The Wildcats lost 2-0 to rival Plainfield North in a Southwest Prairie Conference finale, but fought the good fight all over the field throughout the game.

“We had a couple opportunities. We played right with them,” Schoen said. “Now we need to play like that against every team, not just our rivals, because I know the girls have it in them. It has to happen every game, and we just need to mature a little bit.”

The Wildcats and Tigers have both fielded teams loaded with young players, and Central junior Kelsey Graefen was pleased to see her squad ratchet up its intensity on Friday.

“We have to come out with the mentality we came out with for this game, and go as hard as we can every game,” Graefen said. “We’ll learn that for sure by next year.”

Through 40 minutes, Plainfield Central (7-16, 2-5 in SPC play) kept Plainfield North (20-4-1, 7-0) out of net.

“I was really impressed with our defense in the first half,” Graefen said. “Everyone stayed tight on their marks. They have speed but we have speed, too, so we just kept up with them the whole time.

If we were really under trouble we’d just clear it, but if we had time we looked for the open pass and that helped us.”

With the wind at its back in the second half, Schoen’s squad was in a good position against the SPC leaders.

“In the first half, even though they controlled possession, I thought we limited their opportunities,” Schoen said. “No clean looks and we survived. In the second half we thought if we were patient, we’d get our chances.”

The game turned two minutes into the second half when the Wildcats were called for a foul in the box, and North’s Ashley Auble converted the penalty kick.

Seven minutes later, the Wildcats’ Sami Jensen chipped it over charging North keeper Paige Polonus but her shot went just wide of the far post. The Wildcats’ Bailey Wysocki charged the net after a ball one minute later but Polonus beat her to it and gathered it up.

Jensen went just wide on a second counterattacking run in the 66th minute, before Ashley Handwork put North up in the 70th minute on a Callie O’Donnell cross.

Wildcats keeper Jenna Pascente made an outstanding save down the stretch, diving to her right to stop an O’Donnell head shot.
“They’re rebuilding, they lost a lot of seniors from last year, and they’ve been injured,” Plainfield North coach Jane Crowe said. “But I saw them at the beginning of the year and they’re a much better team than they were at the beginning.”

Graefen and Kulaga were prominent throughout the contest.

“Kelsey has been playing center mid, but today we went stopper-sweeper. Those two girls are smart, and when it’s going to be a tough defensive game we’ll use them both back there,” Schoen said.

“I also thought Melissa Del Sarto played a nice game today. She’s a freshman and she has really picked it up the last three or four games.”

With five freshmen and six sophomores on the roster this year, Del Sarto knows that the learning done this season will pay off next year.

“I think we need to understand more of what the juniors want us to do – connect our passes better and play off the ball,” Del Sarto said. “We need to start moving more, and work on fifty-fifties out of the air.”
 
“I think next year we’ll come back better than we were this year, and we’ll have a better chance against them. I can’t wait to play them next year.”