Trojans fall to Hornets but upbeat heading into playoffs
By Dave Owen
The Class of 2013 has been the heart of Hinsdale South’s team since walking into the school.
Vanessa Niestrom, Jessica Mutters, Brenda Maugeri, Colleen McPherson and Julie Vezzani all started as freshmen on varsity, and fittingly, all five plus fellow senior Kerry Just played key roles Thursday in their Senior Night home finales.
Niestrom earned her fifth shutout of the season, Mutters was a force all over the field and Maugeri and Vezzani notched assists as the Hornets defeated Downers Grove North 2-0 in Darien.
“Vanessa gets a nice shutout – she’s been stellar for four years,” Hinsdale South coach Pat Wolf said. “And it’s nice to have this group of seniors. Last year Carolanne Pilcher was the only senior. Now having a group of six seniors just helps the other girls play as well.”
“Before the game we were all excited and pumped up that it’s our last game at home,” Niestrom said, “but when the whistle blows it’s another game and we have to come out strong.
“They (Downers North) were a good team,” Niestrom added. “We knew coming in that we’d be pretty evenly matched. But we were ready to play and put the ball in the back of the net.”
Junior Alissa Lokanc did her part for the senior celebration by scoring both goals for the Hornets (9-9), beginning with an 18-yard laser into the lower right corner of the net with 24:45 left in the first half.
Seniors Maugeri and Just initiated the play to find her open at the top of the box, and Lokanc withstood contact to produce a powerful shot.
“It was Brenda (on the cross) and there was a tip from Kerry,” Lokanc said. “They had a real nice cross to the middle after I called for it, and after I was pushed over I knew that ‘I had to get this, our team needs this.’
“It’s Senior Night and I wanted this for the seniors. So I finished, and I was so happy when I got up I didn’t even feel the pain.”
Lokanc was unfazed all night by the steady rains and slick field.
“Sometimes I’m on, sometimes I’m off,” said Lokanc, who has six goals this season. “Everybody has their games, but I always play good in the rain, so I was happy (with the weather). I was like, ‘I'm good, let’s do this.’”
Lokanc’s second goal capped a frustrating sequence for Downers North (8-8).
A late offside whistle negated a potential breakaway by the Trojans’ Alyse Dutcher in on right wing. Then on the restart, a powerful 60-yard free kick by Mutters connected with Vezzani near the top of the box.
After goalkeeper Izzy Greenblatt stopped Vezzani’s initial 18-yard shot, Vezzani fielded the rebound and passed to an open Lokanc for the putaway and a 2-0 lead with 8:12 left in the game.
The offside call that preceded the insurance goal proved to be a decisive final turn of momentum against the Trojans.
“That was one I had to question after the game,” Downers North coach Bob Calder said. “I thought it was a great play. It looked like our player (Dutcher) came from pretty far back, but I’m on the other side of the field.”
Vezzani literally had a major impact earlier in the half as well.
With 28:52 left in the match, goalkeeper Cristina Siddu had to leave after colliding with Vezzani on a great save of the senior’s shot just inside the box. Play was whistled dead after the collision, negating Just’s would-be rebound goal.
Greenblatt replaced Siddu and was immediately tested 45 seconds after entering the game, stopping a 22-yard McPherson shot off a Maugeri cross. Just had another great chance with 19 minutes left, when her 15-yard shot went barely wide of the net.
Downers North generated plenty of its own threats throughout the game, including a Gianna Marconi corner kick with 25 seconds left in the first half that was headed inches wide of the right post by Emma Krick.
“I thought we came out and matched their Senior Night intensity pretty well, which doesn’t always happen,” Calder said.
“We had our opportunities – we had a header go just wide on a corner, and we had a couple opportunities when we pushed Gia up front at the end. But we didn’t finish, and it’s hard to win without scoring.”
Marconi nearly tied the game with 16:50 left, when she fielded a long pass from Krick and chipped a 25-yard shot just beyond the reach of a diving Niestrom – but inches wide of the left post.
“I thought Gianna played really well,” Calder said. “I asked her to push up front and see if she could give us an opportunity, and she gave us a lot of good opportunities in the second half. She normally plays in the middle, but I wanted to come back for a win. I didn’t want the game to end 1-0.”
Marconi’s frequent second half attacks on the Hornets’ defense often ran into a major obstacle in Mutters.
The Creighton-bound sweeper not only was dangerous on restarts (on the second goal, plus a 40-yard free kick rocket that Siddu caught at the left post late in the first half), but regularly shut down Trojan chances.
Mutters' first half brilliance included a sliding clear of Mary Helen Beacom's cross to the box, and hustling back to prevent shot attempts on two Trojan breaks (by Marconi and Bridget Keys).
The performance was a typical day in Mutters' comeback season after two years of concentrating on playing club soccer.
“She’s dynamite,” Wolf said. “She’s played great all season. I can’t believe how she can go back and up (the field). A lot of times when we finish practice here, she’s still running her workouts for college.”
With 9:45 left, Mutters sprinted back to beat Marconi to a long ball. Niestrom then capped her strong night in goal with a save on Beacom’s 18-yard shot with 4:55 left.
“Me and Mutters connect well in the back,” said Niestrom. “She knows the right time to pass it back, and I know when to clear the ball out. Having her back there is a huge help. I think throughout the season me and her have been working really well together.”
Elisabetta Bifero was another defensive standout, making a nice 1-on-1 play with 36:30 left to not only deny a corner kick but deflect the ball off the Trojans’ attacker.
Cassie Jensen also nicely headed away a free kick by the Trojans' Arlinda Osmani late in the first half.
“Obviously they had a couple of quick girls that were dangerous, but I think we possessed the ball more than they did,” Wolf said.
“Everybody’s happy and celebrating,” Lokanc said after the Senior Night victory. “Everybody put in a good effort in to win this game.”
Despite the loss, Downers North enters Tuesday’s 7 p.m. Lyons Township Regional semifinal against Glenbard East with optimism.
“We’re getting as healthy as we’ve been,” said Calder, adding that Siddu is expected back for that game. “It’s coming together. I feel like we’re playing as good as we have all season.”
The Trojans were 4-2 in their last six regular season games. Osmani, Megan Treichel, Kaitlin Gunderson and Mary Doro are part of a defense that has allowed just three goals in the last five games.
Hinsdale South is in the Class 2A Nazareth Regional, facing the University of Chicago Lab School at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“We’ve been playing some good ball and haven’t been able to get some goals, so this is a good way to end the regular season,” Wolf said. “Now we have to focus on the task at hand. We want to be happy and celebrate, but we want to make sure we take care of some business as we go forward.
“We have the 2A state champs St. Francis in our bracket, Nazareth (in a potential regional final), and Fenwick’s in there with us. I’m hoping we can get to the regional final, win that and then see what we can do. We have these seniors that are really going to play hard and play well, so that’s kind of nice.”
As an integral part of the Hornets’ lineup for four years, Niestrom is looking for a memorable finish.
“The key to continuing this is definitely having energy from the get-go, and knowing we have to score right away,” Niestrom said. “Going out there with energy will really help us win these playoff games.”
Lokanc hopes team chemistry will be another advantage.
“Winning in the playoffs we just have to keep talking as a team and working together,” she said. “We do a lot of team bonding – last night we were out TP’ing each other’s houses. We have fun together, and as long as we’re communicating well I think we’ll win.”
