Chicagoland Soccer

Cougars' quest for perfect MSL season ends in Barrington

By Gary Larsen

For Conant, the bus ride home from Barrington probably dragged a little on Saturday.

As the MSL West Division champion, Conant (15-3, 10-1) will still play for the Mid-Suburban League Cup on Wednesday at Hersey. But Barrington (12-5-1, 7-2-1) derailed the Cougars’ quest for an unbeaten regular season in the conference, winning 2-0 on first-half goals from Molly Pfeiffer and Emily Hyde.

And a Barrington team that scored 11 goals in its first 10 games of the year has now scored 23 in its last 8 contests.

“This is a real positive for us right now,” Barrington coach Ryan Stengren said. “We’ve treated the last two games like mini-playoff games. They’ve had that mentality in training, they’ve been very focused, and this is exactly where we want to be going into the playoffs.”

Barrington’s Kelly Pedersen joined Naperville North’s Allison Hitchcock as the only goalkeepers this year to walk away from a game against Conant with a shutout to their credit. Pedersen made six saves and tipped a shot over the crossbar late in the contest to preserve the shutout.

“Kelly had a very good week of training,” Stengren said. “I’ve been very demanding of her in training, she’s done very well, and I’m so happy it paid off for her. She was organizing and reading the game very well, and everything was clean by her today.”

Every soccer player alive is a work-in-progress, and Pedersen has benefited from her coach’s high demands this year.

“(Stengren) just likes to expose my weaknesses in practice, and by doing that I’m able to see whatever mistakes I’m making and how to adjust from there,” Pedersen said. “The key for me is just to be relaxed and I think that was the key for me today. I knew what I needed to do.”

Conant’s wins over Prospect and Palatine earlier in the week clinched the MSL West title, but a Cougars team that went into Saturday’s game having outscored its MSL foes 44-3 was primed to run the table in the conference before Barrington ended that possibility.

“Credit Barrington. They deserved to win today, that’s for sure,” Conant coach Jason Franco said. “There were stretches in the second half when we were trying to press and get back in the game, and we couldn’t get it out of our half. It was just a good, gritty effort by them.

“They played really hard and we came out a little flat. We gave up that goal in the first minute but then played hard all the way through, but we didn’t create a whole lot of chances. We’re glad that we still win the West but it would have been nice to go 11-0.”

The sophomore Pfeiffer, who had 10 goals last season, stunned the crowd by scoring on a head shot before a full minute had even ticked off the clock.

“In past games, when we get the first goal, we’re usually successful,” Pfeiffer said. “Starting off strong was one of our weaknesses at the beginning of the year, and now that we’re starting on top of things, that helps out.”

Pfeiffer got on the end of a free kick taken by Fillies freshman Mia Calamari to score her 8th goal of the season, which gave her the team lead for all of 15 minutes. That’s when Hyde netted her 8th goal of the year on a ball sent ahead by Pfeiffer.

“Molly Pfeiffer kind of does it all. She doesn’t always score but you can see the balls she plays,” Stengren said. “When she plays forward she wins a ball in the air on a great goal. When I ask her to drop back to the midfield she wins a lot of balls there, too, so she does a lot for us.”

Hyde raced onto Pfeiffer’s lead pass, got behind the defense and converged on the ball with Conant keeper Lindsay Fillingim. Hyde came away with it and finished into an empty net, while Fillingim appealed to the linesman for a handball call that didn’t come.

Barrington had a two-goal lead but 65 minutes is a long time to try to keep this year’s Cougars out of net.

Conant’s Courtney Raetzman is one of the most dynamic attacking players in Illinois, and running mate Kaitlin Cheiro is a persistent finishing threat, but Pedersen and her defense held them at bay.

“Our girls have played against (Raetzman) and we know her pretty well now,” Stengren said. “We talked about her a lot and they’re a very dangerous team. I’m just pleased with the mentality that we came out with today and in our overall performance. Now it’s about us being consistent and getting healthy for the playoffs. They got some clean looks in the second half that they probably usually finish, but I thought our defense did a very good job.”

Pedersen applauded her back line after Saturday’s shutout.

“We really backed each other up today,” she said. “Mia Calamari had like six shot blocks. I was very impressed with her. Emmelie Hirdes, per usual, was rock-solid, Anna Burnidge played excellent, and Emily Morin uses her speed to get clearances that no one expects.”

And one of those defenders isn’t even a defender.

“Anna Burnidge has basically played midfield all year,” Stengren said. “We got decimated with injuries so we trained her in the back this week, and she’s been incredible. I don’t know what more I could ask for. But our whole back line played very, very well today.”

Throughout the second half, Hyde was dangerous not only in chasing down through-balls behind the Conant defense, but also in spraying a good handful of dangerous passes onto her teammates’ feet as they made runs in the attacking third.

The Fillies are capitalizing on opponents’ mistakes at a high rate with the postseason now looming large. Barrington joined joined Neuqua Valley, Fremd, and Naperville North as one of only four teams to score more than a single goal against Conant this season.

“It our mindset,” Pfeiffer said. “And this is the time of year when we all know each other more on the field, and we know what everyone is capable of doing.”

With her team leading 2-0, Hyde ran onto another through-ball sent from midfield at 28 minute, but Fillingim raced out to destroy the play with a sliding clear.

At 35 minutes, Conant’s Kelsey Foss lined up Conant’s third free kick of the first half from 37 yards out, which led eventually to an Alyssa Altosino rip from distance that Pedersen tipped over the end line. Pedersen punched out the ensuing corner to thwart the Conant threat.

Three minutes into the second half, Hyde and Drew Wentzel contested for a ball sent over the top that ended with Hyde sending a shot just high. Fillingim gathered an Ellie Ackerman through-ball at 50 minutes, and Barrington’s Sarah Fox tested Fillingim at 52 minutes with a bending one-hopper that she fielded cleanly.

Hyde sent a sweet lead pass into the box on a diagonal run by Dana Nelsen but Fillingim won the race to the ball, and then saved on a left-footed strike from Hyde at 70 minutes. Chiero and Raetzman tested Pedersen in the final ten minutes, but Pedersen tipped Chiero’s offering over the crossbar and held onto a blast from Raetzman with only three minutes left in regulation.

Barrington plays at Elk Grove in an MSL makeup game on Monday and then travels to Prospect for an MSL crossover game to end regular-season play. Conant will compete for the MSL title at Hersey on Wednesday, and Franco knows what to expect from the Huskies.

“A defensive, organized effort, counterattacking, long throw-ins, dead balls – we know what they’re going to bring to the table and they’re going to play hard just like Barrington did,” Franco said. “We’ll change our focus to that game and hopefully this game will light a little fire under us to get back out there and play the way we know we can play.”