Saints fall to Barrington 3-1
By Mike Garofola

Barrington (6-3-1) is on its way to the quarterfinals of the Naperville Invite after finally finding its lost attack, following a 3-1 victory over St. Charles East Saturday night at Barrington Community Stadium.

With the victory, the Fillies win Group H of the prestigious tournament, now in its 16th year, while the Saints move over to the consolation bracket to play Sandburg on Thursday at the Wheaton-Warrenville South venue.

Next up for Ryan Stengren's club will be Loyola Academy (12-1-0) which went 2-0-0 in pool play, including a hard-fought overtime triumph over Boylan early Saturday here in Barrington.

"It was a good two days for us, we finally finished some of those chances we've been creating, and we are obviously a different team when we put a few into the back of the net," said Stengren, who recently watched his side struggle to do so - scoring just 3 in 4 matches – and go 1-2-1 in the process.

The Fillies exploded for four goals in a 4-0 win against Evanston in its tourney opener on Friday, before riding the hot shooting boots of sophomore Jenna Szczesny, who poured in three goals against St. Charles East (9-3-1) and two others in the Evanston match.

"I think it felt good for all us to start to score again after we had so much trouble doing so for the last week or so," said the soft-spoken Szczesny, whose pace and ability to break down the defense were on display.

Teammate Aimee Pierce concurred.

"This is a pretty close team, so when we're going through something like (not scoring) it affects all of us," added Pierce, who moved to the backline to take the place of injured teammate Emily Morin. Morin was sent to the hospital after a 50-50 challenge with the Saints’ Darcy Cunningham in the 43rd minute, a collision that ended the day for both players.

"After we created so many chances against Buffalo Grove, and lost 2-1, it was very quiet on the bus ride home," continued Pierce.

"But we're a close knit team and we all work hard, and will continue to do so. Yesterday and today you saw it all pay off with us scoring goals and getting back to playing good soccer."

Saturday was a less than sparkling day for Saints' fans and manager Paul Jennison, but despite its 0-2-0 record in pool play, Jennison had reason to be optimistic.

"(Evanston) was a disaster for us, we go up 1-0, then give away two and end up losing 3-1, but there's going to be ups and downs in a long season," said Jennison, who runs the boys’ program at East as well.

"We were rolling along at a pretty good clip with just one loss in eleven matches and we were brought back to earth a little bit against Evanston, but we came out and played hard and showed well against a very good side (Barrington) and showed we can play this game a little bit."

Szczesny continued her recent scoring run to give the Fillies an early 1-0 advantage when she went past keeper Kendra Sheehan from in close after teammate Molly Pfeiffer slipped a perfect ball to the sophomore. Pfeiffer held off her mark long enough to patiently wait for Szczesny to get deeper into her center channel run.

The same combination worked again just three minutes later, only this time a nicely timed diagonal run by the Fillies’ striker set her free, and all-state midfielder Pfeiffer put her through and, in on Sheehan.

"It wasn't the start that we wanted, especially after how things went in that first tournament game this morning, but we didn't fall apart as a team, and really responded well against a strong team like Barrington, after they built that two-goal advantage so early," said Saints midfielder Amanda Hilton.

The hard-running junior Hilton, along with Anna Corirosi, were the engines in the Saints attack throughout, and helped rev a strong effort to get the visitors back to make a game of it.

"Anna and I have been playing together since we were seven and now with our Strikers (Fox Valley) club, so we're so connected,” Hilton said. “We both know were the other will be, which allows us to control the midfield.”

The Saints’ Sam Lombardo and Carly Pottle got more involved in the attack after the Fillies doubled their lead, and a long serve from Allie Arvizu out of the back to Pottle into the box would force Barrington's Hannah Luedtke into her first save of the match at 20 minutes.

Sheehan would do well to stay with a blistering left-footed cracker from Pfeiffer, before taking a looping ball from Barrington’s Mia Calamari confidently out of the air.

Both sides entertained the crowd with some marvelous soccer for the last quarter hour of the first period, testing and stretching each other, sometimes to the limit. But neither side was able to beat either keeper or their respective backlines, which stayed water-tight up until intermission.

"We responded well after going two goals down with some solid pace and energy against a good side, and one that was a little fresher than us after having almost 24 hours to recover," offered Jennison.

Arvizu's strong tackle stopped Szczesny from finishing a ball sent in from Pfeiffer at 31 minutes, and moments later Alex Avers’ serve to the back post nearly ended up on the foot of Gillian Hood.

Arvizu's name was called again, this time with a long freekick into the area, but Luedtke was able to collect the ball.

"It was a good first half for us, We were able to get a lot of people in at that time, who all contributed with some good work, and that's the way we've been able to do things so far this season," said Stengren.

The Saints’ Shannon Rasmussen, who had impressed with a couple of surging runs up the left side after the break, made her imprint on the match in the 47th minute, stepping up and hitting a superb left-footed freekick from 25 yards high into the far corner, past the outstretched gloves of Alexis Dargis, who came on for Luedtke in the second period.

"Just a brilliant goal from Shannon, and one that helped get us back in the match with plenty of time left to go," said Jennison.

As expected, this sensational strike was just what the Saints needed, and with some added bite from Rasmussen on the outside, Hilton and Corirosi in the middle, in addition to Lombardo and Settle, the visitors surged forward in search of an equalizing goal.

"We really missed not having Emily (Morin) in the back after her injury, but moving Aimee Pierce back helped us so much. The work of Carrie Caplin, Mia (Calamari), and Meredith (Slott) was also big for us," offered Stengren.

Sheehan stayed composed when she stopped another from Szczesny, when Pfeiffer's early ball put her through at 55 minutes, and the junior was strong when she took a hit from Calamari at the spot when the Fillies junior tried to catch-up to yet another well-paced serve over the top from Pfeiffer.

But with the pressure mounting from the home side, it wasn't long before Szczesny pulled back the goal from Rasmussen to restore the Fillies two-goal advantage, after both Pierce and Avers helped create the chance.

Dargis would collect two long balls from Rasmussen into the area, then a freekick from 22 yards in the 71st minute, but that was about all the Saints could muster down the stretch.

"A bit disappointing with the result but again, we showed we can play and we found out we have a lot of quality in our keeper, Kendra Sheehan,” Jennison said.

"Up to now, she hasn't been tested all that much but she showed (tonight) that she's capable of making big saves when we need her to, while also taking control of the box."

Both Pierce and Szczesny were proud of the effort their mates gave for 80 minutes, and the Fillies’ advancement into Thursday's quarterfinals.

"I think for the seniors in particular, they and the rest of us realize the season is going by so fast, and we've got to win these games now in order to get ourselves ready for the last few important weeks of the season,” Pierce said.