Young Warriors fall 2-1 to Rosary on late goal
By Darryl Mellema

There were moments on Tuesday when Wheaton Academy played flowing soccer, pressed Rosary and pushed the Royals.

But those times of solid play were coupled with periods where passing moves broke down, defensive lapses occurred and the Warriors struggled against their hosts in the afternoon’s Suburban Christian Conference contest.

By the end of the match – won 2-1 by Rosary – Wheaton Academy looked like what it is, a mostly youthful team that is still settling into the season.

“We’re young this year and we’re still trying to figure it out,” Wheaton Academy coach Dave Underwood said. “We’re going to struggle on the offensive end. We’re struggling to create good goalscoring opportunities. When that happens, we have to defend flawlessly – and we didn’t.”

The Warriors (1-2-1, 0-1) created chances in the scoreless first half, including a Molly Thorson shot from an Abby Olson left wing corner kick that forced a goal line save by Stephanie Ebert.

But 15 minutes into the second half, Rosary took the lead on a Quincy Kellett goal. Needing a response, the Warriors got one in 29 seconds. Moving upfield quickly from the kickoff after Kellett’s goal, Kate Lindsay sent a pass to Jamie Netzley, who sent a looping shot into the right side netting.

“That was great, we were real happy about that,” Underwood said. “We’ve been working on the idea that if we can get the ball deep and get on the end of that, then good things can happen. At least we can give ourselves a chance. Kate Lindsay, I thought she had a real good game up top. She tracked the ball down and Jamie Netzley did a nice job of supporting her. (Lindsay) made a nice little pass and (Netzley) put it away.”

Thorson sent a long-range shot over the crossbar with eight minutes left with Wheaton Academy’s final strong scoring opportunity.

That left the match’s outcome uncertain heading into the final minute. Anna Sheen made certain of a Rosary victory when she stabbed a shot into the net from the top of the penalty area with only 22 seconds to play.

Underwood said there were fixable errors on each of Rosary’s goals.

“What created the first goal was that we had a defender who stepped up and overcommitted and we weren’t in a good cover position,” Underwood said. “The second goal – it’s the waning seconds of the game and they have a girl with a big throw and we miss-head it and head it right back across the middle at the top of the 18. Any decent team is going to make you pay for that, and they did. Credit to (Sheen), it was a heck of a shot.”

Through the early portion of the season, goals have been hard to come by for Wheaton Academy.

“We can’t afford those little mistakes on the defensive end, and that’s what we talked about,” Underwood said. “The little things add up to bigger things, and today was a perfect example of that. We did so many little things without sharpness and without being real focused on the details.”

The season is still incredibly young and the Warriors only have four seniors on the roster, meaning it could take a little time for some of these issues to go away.

“We’ve got a lot of young players in key positions,” Underwood said. “It was a freshman who scored the goal and she did a nice job on that. We have a freshman at center back and a goalkeeper where this is her first year at varsity. Those aren’t excuses – it’s just the reality.”

Although she didn’t score, Thorson was a handful for Rosary throughout the match – and a quick check of her year in school brought the postmatch comment that she doesn’t play like a sophomore.

“She’s good,” Underwood said. “It certainly bodes well for the future that we’ve got some young players who are good players. (Thorson) does play with a maturity. She’s a great leader too. She covers a lot of ground and we’re expecting great things from her. We’re trying to find a better spot for her on the field. We’ve tried her at a holding center mid, we tried her as a withdrawn striker and we’ve tried her up top as a lone striker and we’ve tried her out wide. We’re bouncing her around to find what’s going to be the best fit for her and the team.”

Wheaton Academy heads on Saturday to its participation in the Pepsi Showdown. The Warriors open with a 10:30 a.m. contest against Normal U-High at Schaumburg’s Olympic Park.

“That’ll be good for us,” Underwood said. “With our inexperience, we might take our lumps, but that’s OK. We’re looking to learn. Certainly you hate to lose, and you hate to lose like we did with 22 seconds left. But I feel like it’s so important for us as a young team. I feel like one of the best teachers is experience. And unfortunately, one of the best experiential teachers is a loss. As long as we’re learning and growing and getting better, we can deal with it.”