Vikings top Hersey on Wagner goal
By Gary Larsen

For the first 40 minutes of Saturday’s MSL contest between Fremd and Hersey, the teams attempted to give new meaning to the phrase “lazy Saturday afternoon”.

“A very lethargic half of soccer,” Vikings coach Steve Keller said.

After halftime, however, Fremd found its step and located a goal in a 1-0 win. Fremd’s Bri Frys earned a corner kick on the right side and then sent that corner to the near post, where Katherine Ernst got a piece of it before Caroline Wagner finished on it.

“I think our team was focusing too much on the physical fatigue and we weren’t sharp enough mentally in the first half,” Frys said.

“We’ve really been trying to stick all our tackles and get physical with the other team, challenging every ball. We did a better job of that in the second half and we found feet and connected a lot more, which was to our advantage.”

Wagner’s goal at 62 minutes capped a 22-minute span of play after intermission that essentially saw Fremd (10-5-2, 7-3-1 in MSL play) keep Hersey (11-4-4, 7-2-2) pinned on its half of midfield.
Wagner’s goal was also the first one given up by Hersey since April 11.

“Basically we ran into a hot Fremd team on the last game of the year, and they finished their opportunity and we squandered ours,” Hersey coach Brad Abel said. “But if we’re going to give up a goal – and that’s the first one we’ve given up in eight games – I’d rather give it up today than in the playoffs.”

Hersey had a good early chance when a Lauren Gierman corner kick at four minutes whipped past the far post with a player charging on, but the ball continued over the endline.

The teams managed a few shots sent wide of frame and long serves towards the goalmouth in the first half, and the only saves that Hersey keeper Morgan Harris and Fremd keeper Christine Piasecki had to make came easily on shots taken from distance.

Both coaches spent halftime urging better intensity, and Fremd answered the bell.

“I thought they stepped their game up with physicality, they won balls, they anticipated, and I thought that was the difference in the second half,” Keller said.

The Vikings’ Mary-Kate Schiffer hit a hard shot on the diagonal from the right side that Harris saved at the near post, one minute into the second half. Schiffer was at it again at 48 minutes, busting in up the left side and forcing a quality, sprawling save from Harris.

Wagner sent a shot high at 51 minutes from distance and Fremd kept pressuring to Frys’ hustle play that led to Wagner’s goal. Frys’ play was prominent at outside mid during Fremd’s spirited second-half play.

“Bri does a very nice job on the outside, I think more so than on the inside, because she’s isolated,” Keller said. “She’s able to dribble out there and she’s been a nice surprise on the outside.”

Gierman – who left the game 10 minutes in due to illness – returned for the game’s final 20 minutes and immediately made her presence felt at midfield. But Abel was pleased with the way his girls stepped up in her absence.

“The way we work, even when (Gierman) is in and they throw two or three on her, we’re still able to generate something, but I thought the girls that stepped in when Lauren went out did a nice job,” Abel said. “Amy (Kappelman) slid into the middle for us and played well, and Sarah Mulroe on the outside had another great game.”

And after Wagner’s goal, Hersey  picked up its attacking intensity in pursuit of an equalizer.

Gierman sent a freekick in from midfield that Piasecki fielded on one hop at the post, and the Huskies’ Kaitlyn Smetana chased down a ball sent deep on the right side at 64 minutes but was thwarted at the endline.

Smetana and Fremd defender Courtney Norenberg met at a tackle at the 18 at 68 on a through-ball sent forward, with Norenberg winning the battle and clearing, and Kappelman nearly got on the end of a Gierman freekick launched in at 73 minutes.

Piasecki elevated at the post and came away with a cross and then saved a shot by Hersey’s Casey Weyhrich at 77 minutes. Smetana sent in a final shot from distance at 80 minutes and Piasecki handled it to end the contest.

“After we got scored on, I wish we could put that kind of pressure on like we did in the last seventeen minutes,” Abel said. “I wish we could have done that the whole game.

“But Fremd is physical and I hope this game helps us to get ready for the playoffs. Hopefully we’re fortunate enough to see them down the road in a sectional game.”

Before that happens, Hersey will take on Conant on the MSL’s crossover day Tuesday, while Fremd will do battle with Elk Grove before finishing its regular season with a game at New Trier on May 11.