Warriors fall on two LT freekicks
By Matt LeCren

Even though she’s brainy enough to have already verbally committed to Cornell, Lyons Township junior midfielder Erin Fitzgerald doesn’t put much thought into her free kicks.

She just picks a spot to aim for and lets it fly.

It’s a method that works well for her, as it did twice on Thursday. Fitzgerald scored on a pair of perfectly-struck free kicks and that was all the host Lions needed to knock off a formidable Waubonsie Valley squad 2-0 at Bennett Field in Western Springs.

“The wall is directly in front of me and normally their goalkeepers are kind of short, so I decided that up on the other side of where the goalkeeper was covering was the best way to go,” Fitzgerald said. “I kind of just hit it hard and it went to the right spot.”

The right spot on both occasions proved to be the upper left corner of the net. Fitzgerald’s first goal was a 23-yard blast from outside the top of the right circle that broke the ice with 17:49 remaining in the first half.

The second was a 27-yarder up the middle that went over the wall and far beyond the reach of Waubonsie goalie Erin Morgan at the 24:26 mark of the second half. Neither shot was stoppable.

“I don’t really think about it when I shoot it because when I think about it it kind of messes me up,” said Fitzgerald, who had never scored twice on free kicks in a game before. “So basically I just look at where I want to shoot and I hit it as hard as I can and hope it goes in the right direction.”

It usually does, especially when Waubonsie is the opponent. Fitzgerald also scored on a free kick against the Warriors last season, a game that ended in a 1-1 draw. So it’s not as if opponents don’t know it’s coming. Knowing it and stopping it, however, are two different things.

“We like to give up free-kick goals against Lyons, I guess,” Waubonsie coach Julie Bergstrom quipped. “Those free kicks are great shots. Those were big-time. Name me a keeper that’s going to get to those.”

Lyons coach Bill Lanspeary is used to seeing such work from Fitzgerald and it never tires of it.

“She works on them,” Lanspeary said. “She works on it all year long and she just strikes the ball really well and can usually put it where she wants, so obviously it’s pretty deadly. Those were both upper 90s.”

And both were much-needed, seeing as how they were the extent of the LT offense. Waubonsie (0-1) controlled much of the action and outshot the Lions (1-0) by a 12-4 edge, with the only dangerous shots on frame being Fitzgerald’s two goals. The Warriors also had a 5-0 advantage in corner kicks.

“I thought we battled hard defensively,” Lanspeary said. “I didn’t think we gave up too many great chances. They certainly had a few, but I thought we battled hard and did a nice job in the back, especially in the second half.

“We got out of here with a win and obviously it’s a great win, but they’re awfully good. We need to get to the point where we’re knocking the ball around like they are. They knocked the ball around really well. They do a great job.”

Indeed, the Warriors figure to be an extremely dangerous team this spring. They graduated only four players from a squad that went 16-5-3 a year ago. All of the losses came to the three Naperville schools and most were close matches.

“It’s exciting,” Bergstrom said. “They’re a fun group. They’ve been working hard and we had a lot of positives come out of the game, especially because they are such a young group. We’ve got to expect some mistakes.”

But there weren’t many in a contest played at an impressively high level considering the frigid temperatures and the teams’ lack of outdoor training.

“The weather hasn’t been the most cooperative to be able to get outside, so coming out to play your first game outside, you never know what you’re going to get,” Bergstrom noted. “I thought we did some nice things. Obviously, you can always work on things to get better and I thought as the game went along we got better.”

Junior Kristen Brots just missed tying the game in the final minute of the first half, rifling a 20-yard free kick from a severe angle in the left corner off the top of the left post with 40 ticks left before the break.

The Warriors continued to press forward after intermission, taking nine shots and making life a little hairy for the LT defense, which proved up to the task, especially up the middle where Catherine King and Ari Kowalski were active and aggressive in stunting the Warriors attack, while CC Holbert and Margaret Lynch did well to block a pair of shots.

When the Warriors did get open looks at the net, it was often from distance or the wings and LT goalie Lidia Breen rose to the challenge, making five saves in recording a shutout in her varsity debut.

That included two diving saves on sharp shots up the middle by Brots and a running leap to parry a 30-yard shot from Jenna Romano over the pipe. Breen also alertly came out to cut off several crosses and another to knock a bouncing ball out of danger just before it got to Kristen Dodson. Morgan Kemerling, who later missed high on an 18-yard shot off a corner kick, had sent that ball over the defense into the middle of the box.

“[Breen] did a very nice job,” Lanspeary said. “Came out strong a couple times when she needed to and cleared things before they got even more dangerous and hung on to some ones that were hit pretty hard at her.”

Breen’s performance was encouraging for the Lions as goalie was a major question mark heading into the season. Breen, senior Sam Kopping and junior Molly Henderson are all vying to replace graduated star Maggie Orlowski.

“We’ve got three that are each going to get an opportunity,” Lanspeary said. “This spring weather has been terrible. We haven’t had a chance to see a whole lot. We can’t evaluate too much inside and we’re just getting outside. [Breen] certainly did a great job with her opportunity.”

LT figures to have another solid season with a mix of veteran stars and some promising newcomers. At this point, the Lions were just thankful to get outside, so much so that Fitzgerald didn’t seem to mind the 33-degree weather.

“A couple days ago it was snowing when we were practicing and we were like, ‘oh my gosh, I bet it’s going to be terrible for the game,’ but it actually turned out to be really nice,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s awesome to be playing outside again instead of in the gym.”