Blackhawks fall behind, fall to Rosary
By Matt Le Cren

All West Aurora had to do to win its own tournament for the second straight year was beat or tie Rosary on Wednesday night.

That task proved easier said than done.

The Blackhawks fell behind early and were never ever able to catch up to the Royals, who cruised to a 6-2 victory. The win gave Rosary (5-1-2) the tournament title with a 2-0-1 record. West Aurora (4-5-1) finished the four-team round-robin with a 2-1 mark after previously shutting out Kaneland 1-0 and East Aurora 3-0.

“They just outplayed us,” West Aurora coach Laura Wagley said. “I don’t think we were ready to play. All we had to do was win or tie and we couldn’t do that.”

By winning the tournament, the Royals avenged a 2-1 loss to the Blackhawks at last year’s Rosary Tournament, which was won by West Aurora.

“It was one of our goals to win this tournament and the Rosary one because we won them last year so we wanted to go back-to-back in both,” Wagley said. “But we’re tired. We have five games this week so we’re beat up.”

Rosary attacked West Aurora’s defense with an impressive display of passing and speed. Senior Kaitlin Johnson and sophomore Quincy Kellett both tallied two goals and an assist for the Royals, while Olivia Cozzoni and Taylor Gibson each found the back of the net once.

“Our coach kept telling us that last year they played us in our tournament and they beat us, so she said if we beat them today in their tournament it will be like revenge,” Kellett said. “We played hard at the beginning. We played 10 minutes of great soccer the first half.”

There was no doubt about that. The Royals seized control early, taking a 2-0 lead as Kellett and Johnson scored 33 seconds apart. Kellett, who had 28 goals last season and has eight so far this spring, opened the scoring by scoring on a breakaway at the 34:05 mark of the first half.

She then assisted on Johnson’s first score of the season when she sent a perfect cross in front to the Michigan State recruit, who was wide open and had an easy header from three yards out.

“We knew going into it that we had to stop [Kellett],” Wagley said. “We knew that we had to stop her in order to win the game because they target her every single play and we couldn’t shut her down.”

West Aurora goalie Jasmine Meija tried her best to stop the Royals. She made nine saves, which included thwarting breakaways by Kellett and Emily Martin in the first half.

Sam O’Brien then gave the Blackhawks a spark when she cut the gap to 2-1 with a spectacular run from the right wing into the middle of the penalty area, where she beat a defender and sent a 12-yard shot past DePaul-bound Rosary goalie Lauren Frasca with 4:09 to go in the first half.

Any momentum the hosts had lasted a mere 18 seconds, which was all it took the Royals to answer back. Kellett did the honors by lofting a 20-yard shot from just outside the right side of the penalty area and inside the left post from a severe angle.

“I thought it was going out,” Kellett said. “I just tried to turn my hips. I have an ankle injury so my ankle is taped up, so I was just trying to keep the ball in and maybe get a play in front of the goal.”

The Royals had plenty of good plays in West Aurora’s end, thanks mainly to Kellett and Johnson, a Michigan State recruit who was playing her third game after missing three matches with a concussion.

Johnson assisted on Cozzoni’s goal at the 30:48 mark of the second half and then tallied her second goal of the game to make it 5-1 about 10 minutes later.

“We had her up at forward,” Rosary coach Kristi Kane said. “She was a center mid and you tend to have to head the ball a lot more at that position, but she’s a tough kid. Even though she’s had a concussion she’s not going to back down and not head the ball into the net if she has the opportunity. Those were her first two goals of the year, so she was really excited.”

The Royals are excited to have Johnson back.

“She’s a great player,” Kellett said. “It really hurt us when she was out. We both like playing forward together. We always look for each other. We were having some fun out there tonight.”

The Blackhawks didn’t have as much fun, but they didn’t lack for effort or motivation.

Meija made two more outstanding plays, stoning Kellett on a breakaway to deny her the hat trick with 18:30 remaining. Three minutes later, Meija tripped Kellett on another breakaway in the box, but she stopped Gibson on the resulting penalty kick.

Senior Daniela Bueno then ran onto a great lead pass from Reilly Kulakowski and beat Frasca with a 10-yard shot to cut the deficit to 5-2 with 11:56 remaining before Gibson got back at Meija by blasting a 25-yard shot under the crossbar to cap the scoring at the 5:17 mark.

O’Brien and Bueno, two of West Aurora’s top players, are both playing through injuries, putting more pressure on a thin bench and a back line that has given up 10 goals in the past two games.

“Reilly has a big contusion on her leg, Sam is beat up and Daniela is beat up,” Wagley said. “We’re not a very deep team.

“But like I say over and over again, it doesn’t matter how much we’re down by. We will fight and fight for 80 minutes until it is over. I’m proud of them for that, but the kids can’t fall behind.”

The Blackhawks will be back in action Thursday when they host Glenbard North in a DuPage Valley Conference game. They continue league play Saturday with a trip to defending state champion Naperville North.