Red Devils kick off successful day with victory over Vikings

 

 

By Curt Herron

Fremd put itself in a good position in its group play of the Naperville Invite after defeating favored Waubonsie Valley 1-0 on Friday night.

But the Vikings had to turn right around in the rescheduled tournament and meet another quality opponent in Hinsdale Central the next morning.

The Red Devils had their own designs on advancing to Thursday's quarterfinals and put that plan into motion in the first of two matches.

Hinsdale scored in the 46th minute and then made sure that lead would stand as it went on to claim a 1-0 win over Fremd at Naperville North.

Coach Michael Smith's side followed that effort with a 3-2 win on penalties over Waubonsie later in the day to advance against Neuqua Valley.

The Red Devils (6-1-2) recorded their sixth shutout of the season, thanks to a combined performance from Riley Glenn and Katy Coseglia.

Hinsdale connected following a nice build-up which started with a Casey May pass to Jenn Jarmy, who found Meghan Schick for a short try.

"We knew that Fremd was going to be physical, aggressive and highly-motivated," Smith said. "They were in the driver's seat in our group since they had the win over Waubonsie.

"What I was happy about from our girls was that in the second half we had much better mobility with our front players and there was much better communication in the offensive third.

"We also hit the crossbar twice. But we were creating more chances in the second half because of our mobility and communication and we want to take that into our next matches.

"On our goal, the entry ball went to Casey, who held it and then Jenn made a great run for the ball and held it and then we had a composed finish in front of the goal by Meghan."

Another thing that the Red Devil coach was proud of was another fine defensive effort, which has been a staple for the squad this year.

"Christa Kuhlman played at left back and was phenomenal," Smith said. "Kat Treankler and Katie Camden at center back were winning balls in the air and standing players up 1 v 1.

"Lily Chetosky and Jenny Saviski at outside right back gave us something going forward, which is what we're asking for. We want them to give us more opportunities to be dangerous."

Fremd (4-4-2) struggled to make things click, especially following the break. That was a troubling develoment for coach Steve Keller.

"You could probably say that we were a little fatigued, but I don't think that that should have made a difference," Keller said. "We were more mentally than physically. We had some chances in the first half and if we put those away, maybe it would have been a different story.

"I thought that we played well and played hard in the first half. We were solid throughout but just didn't have that finishing touch in the final third. But in the second half we got thoroughly outhustled and outplayed and that was very disappointing.

"In the first half I thought that our backline did a good job. Liz Flavin played a really nice game and then wide, Jessa Rizzo and Bri Frys did a very nice job of playing 80 minutes after playing 80 minutes last night."

Not long after the final half got underway, Christa Kuhlman set the tone for the Red Devils when she lined a shot that was hauled in.

A short time later, Hinsdale collected the match's lone score on a nice sequence from May to Jarmy to Schick that progressed downfield.

Fremd's best second half chance came just before the midpoint on a corner from Bri Frys that led to a short shot by Courtney Norenberg.

The Red Devils turned up the pressure in the final minutes, starting with Schick's liner off the crossbar and Jarmy's rebound attempt.

Schick just missed a few minutes later when another try hit the frame and she had another effort thwarted prior to the final whistle.