Wildcats top St. Charles North on a Dal Pozzo PK
By Matt Le Cren

The state finals are still two months away, but Thursday’s game between Neuqua Valley and St. Charles North provided fans with one possible preview of the Class 3A state championship match-up.

With at least 15 Division I players between them, the two sides don’t lack for talent and little separated them until Gianna Dal Pozzo scored on a penalty kick with 11:02 left in the second half to give Neuqua Valley a 1-0 victory on the second day of the round-robin Downers Grove South Invitational.

The Wildcats (2-1) can win the tournament with a win or tie against Downers South on Saturday. St. Charles North (3-1) needs to beat Lincoln-Way Central and hope Downers South knocks off Neuqua to force a three-way tie.

“In the first half we didn’t play that well,” Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. “The passes were a yard or two wide, our first touch was awful, so we were happy to be tied 0-0 at half because we knew we played poorly.

“I think we created some more things in the second half, made some nice runs. But it’s March. You just build upon games in March. You don’t make it the end-all.”

St. Charles North reached the Class 3A state title game last season, and North Stars coach Ruth Vostal viewed Thursday’s late-March game in a similar vein.

“I think you had two equal teams talent-wise and for whatever reason our energy was a little bit flat,” Vostal said. “Our speed of play was a little bit slower than usual. It’s a good starting point to see where we are at this point in the season.”

The Wildcats, who nearly scored with 2:00 to go in the first half when Brooke Ksiazek’s liner from 31-yards out hit the crossbar and went out of play, steadily built up their attack in the second half.

It finally paid off when Katie Ciesiulka was dumped in the penalty area. Dal Pozzo ripped the ensuing penalty into the lower right corner past diving North Stars goalie Shelby Stitz.

Ciesiulka, who scored two goals in Wednesday’s 7-0 win over Lincoln-Way Central, could have taken the penalty but opted not to.

“Usually Katie doesn’t like taking (penalty kicks), but usually me or Hope [D’Addario] will take them,” Dal Pozzo said. “Hope said, ‘do you want it,’ and I said, ‘sure.’”

Taking pressure kicks is nothing new for Dal Pozzo and she was matter-of-fact in her approach.

“We’ve practiced them a lot so now it’s just basic, but [the aim is for] low corners,” Dal Pozzo said. “The goalie chose the same side but it was just too far to the same corner.”

The Wildcats’ attack was just too much for the North Stars to overcome. Neuqua controlled the midfield and goalie Courtney Keefer did not have to make a save as St. Charles North managed  four shots, but none on frame.

“Our biggest thing is just to try to keep possession because we know that if we keep possession things will open up for us,” D’Addario said. “We had a lot of good chances that we just weren’t finishing on and I think that once the second half came and we didn’t get a goal we knew that we had to push it to make sure that we finished our chances. Then we got that penalty.”

The Wildcats have had to adjust to the loss of their best player, senior forward Zoey Goralski, who suffered a torn ACL while playing for the United States U-20 National team against Germany in Spain on March 9.

The UCLA recruit is one of the top high school players in the country and the engine that makes the Wildcats go, so the team has had to retool its attack. Neuqua has changed to a more midfield-heavy formation and moved a lot of players around.

But it is Dal Pozzo and D’Addario, two seniors with plenty of experience at dissecting defenses, who remain vital parts of the attack.

“We play a different formation now and honestly it’s working for us now,” Dal Pozzo said. “We’re just adapting to it well and playing together. We’re compensating for what we lost.

“Zoey is like a speedy forward, so now we’re going to put more in the midfield and get runs in behind.”

While Goralski’s injury is devastating, the one silver lining for the Wildcats is that it came before the season and not in the middle or near the end, so the team didn’t have to adjust on the fly.

“We definitely prepared differently than if she was here, so going into the season knowing she wasn’t here, we knew that the mentality was different,” D’Addario said. “We had to step it up and we knew we had to put another player in that position and they had to excel.

“Obviously it was a huge loss but we’re trying to not dwell on the fact that we don’t have her and kind of like push forward. She’s still a big part of the team with encouragement. She can see the game really well. We know that she’s not going to be on the field with us so we that means that every player has to do their part that much more.”

One of those players is Ciesiulka, a junior who has committed to Marquette. She plays holding midfielder for her club team but has moved to outside midfielder for the Wildcats.

“I think Katie’s going to like playing that position,” Moreau said. “I think it frees her up for more goal-scoring opportunities. She’s an outside mid and in this formation it sets up the outside mids to get into the attack. She scored two goals last night and she’s not a goal scorer.”

Ciesiulka is not the only one with a changed role. Even without Goralski, the Wildcats have eight other Division I recruits in Ciesiulka, Dal Pozzo (Miami), D’Addario (Illinois), Keefer (Illinois), Ksiazek (Illinois State), Talise Romain (Florida), Shannon Donlon (Bucknell) and Olivia Schmitt (Illinois) and Moreau intends to use them all when healthy (Romain has suffered back spasms but hopes to return against Metea Valley on Tuesday).

“You’ve got kids who are playing different spots than they’re used to,” Moreau said. “Lauren Ciesla plays outside back and Gianna plays center back, Shannon plays more in the midfield.

“Hope’s probably the best outside back in the state and we have her playing attack mid, but we know G and her combine very well together.”

With all that talent, Neuqua’s expectations are high but playing in the talent-rich Naperville area, success cannot be taken for granted.

“I think we know we have the talent and it’s just a matter of hard work and going all the way,” D’Addario said. “I think we have to push ourselves that much farther because we can’t waste the opportunity that we have been given. Our team is really, really loaded with good players, so we just need to work hard. That’s the main thing.

Despite the firepower they faced, the North Stars didn’t wilt. Their defense had a few breakdowns but backs Jenny Barr, Jorie Clawson, Megan O’Leary and Kenzie Rose did a good job of sealing off the middle in front of Stitz, who made six saves.

At the other end, Neuqua’s defense, led by Ciesla, Sophia Moreau, Kelly Keckler and Dannah Williams, was superb in keeping the dangerous Alex Gage at bay. The Loyola recruit was held without a shot and junior forward Alyssa Brandt mustered one, a 15-yarder that rolled just wide of the left post with 25:10 to go in the second half.

“We moved [Gage] around a little so she was actually an attacking midfielder, so Lizzie and Natalie were more the ones marking [D’Addario and Dal Pozzo],” Vostal said. “I thought we could get past their back line. They were playing pretty flat and I was thinking Alex, being a creative playmaker, could get a ball in there, so we pulled her out of midfield to do that and she created some chances.

“But overall, we didn’t create that many chances.”