Wentzel's OT penalty kick sends Conant to the Elite Eight

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By Darryl Mellema

No matter how many times you replay the events of Friday's Conant-Schaumburg sectional title match at St. Charles East, everything still boils to the events that occurred with 1:06 left in the first overtime.

Take all the shots, saves, fouls, good referee's calls and those people disagreed with – and it still comes to that time – which is etched in everyone's mind who was at Norris Stadium because the clock was stopped at that moment in time.

The reason for the stoppage was a penalty kick that had been awarded to Conant (19-4) after Sammi van de Linde was taken down while running onto a Christina Rosales through ball.

The match at that point became a 1-on-1 moment between Schaumburg goalie Tressa Palcheck and Conant's Drew Wentzel. Penalty kicks always favor the shooter, but Palcheck had been outstanding in the match to that point and Wentzel is a freshman.

What happened next is the stuff that Conant fans will remember for a long time. Wentzel stepped up and hit a well-struck shot to the right and found the back of the net, moving the Cougars into Tuesday's Elk Grove Supersectional against Loyola.

“When I take PK's, I zone everything out and I focus on the corner that I'm kicking to,” Wentzel said. “And I don't face the goalie. That's usually what zones people out. Once they look at the goalie, then they're going to kick it right to the goalie. The thing is to take big breaths, take big steps and aim where you want to go.”

Wentzel emerged as the team's penalty kick taker after discussions this week in practice.

“My sister (Paige) and I have been the PK takers on our local teams,” Drew Wentzel said. “I guess when we practiced it, (Conant coach Jason Franco) felt I was the one most-ready to take on the pressure. I've been put in those positions and I've came through in those.”

Despite being a freshman, she is experienced at the craft, something she showed as she dispatched the kick. Wentzel showed no emotion until the ball hit the back of the net, at which point she turned, put both arms at 90 degree angles with her fists clenched and waited the crush of charging Cougars.

“It seems calm from everyone else's point of view,” Wentzel said. “For me, my heart is pumping and I've got butterflies. I don't know how people see that I'm calm because I feel that I'm going to break down. But I guess I just pull through every time.”

All that nervous tension burst as the ball hit the back of the Saxons net and Conant secured its second-ever Supersectional spot. Two years ago, Conant finished fourth in the state tournament.

“It's just a wave of emotion,” Wentzel said. “I'm usually not that person to pull through for my team because I play defense. Yeah, I make a few saves once in a while. But to be that one person to pick up the team when we're down and putting the goal in when we should have – it felt amazing.”

Wentzel's penalty kick goal ended a match that had the look and physical feel of a Mid-Suburban League match. Conant and Schaumburg are long-time rivals and sit just 5 miles from each other. In this year's regular season matchup, Conant used a Kelsey Foss goal to defeat the Saxons. Friday's match was every bit as close.

“It was constant pressure,” Conant forward Kaitlin Chiero said. “Every time we lost the ball or whenever the ball went in the air, we had to try to hold it and to pressure it constantly. We wanted to try to keep it in their end.”

For all the talk about other strong conferences this spring, the MSL has emerged as the strongest in the postseason. The Upstate Eight, with two-time defending champion Waubonsie Valley and No. 1-ranked Neuqua Valley is shut out of the Elite Eight. The DuPage Valley, with strong schools from Wheaton and Naperville, has Naperville North still standing.

But the MSL started Friday with Barrington and Fremd playing as well as the two teams at St. Charles East – and the Fillies and Vikings won to join Conant in the Supersectional round to determine the Final Four teams which will play for the state title next weekend at Naperville Central.

“Even the teams that aren't still alive, the Herseys and the Elk Groves are still quality teams,” Franco said. “We're pretty battle-tested. We've only played in one tournament, the Naperville Tournament. But then every game we go out, whether it's Palatine or Rolling Meadows, it's a battle and it gets you ready for this type of game. You have to be ready for every game in our conference, and that helps when you get to this point in the tournament.”

After taking a little time to find their collective feet, the Cougars and Saxons tore into each other with the vigor for which the MSL is known.

“It's physical and good defense and it's hard to score on anybody in the Mid-Suburban League,” Franco said.

Given the proximity of the two schools and the annual meetings, scouting for a match such as Friday's is somewhat easy. The teams and coaches are all aware of each other's strengths and weaknesses. For example, Courtney Raetzman wasn't just going up against a defender; she was going against Ali Schmalz, who she knew wouldn't give any ground.

“I mean, she's a great player and gave me something to be nervous about,” Raetzman said. “Both teams were pumped and wanted to get after it. Last year, we knocked them out of playoffs and I'm sure they wanted to get back at us for that. We're big-time rivals.”

Conant's next opponent, Loyola, will be more than a challenge if the Cougars hope to extend their postseason stay.

“We're really excited,” Chiero said. “We feel that if we can get past the one game, we definitely have a chance of winning. But we're not looking toward state yet. It's of course in the back of our mind. But we're definitely going to get ready for the next game. It really is 'one game at a time' right now.”

Conant and Schaumburg both play on artificial surfaces in their home matches and for many of their road matches as well. After playing both sectional contests on natural grass, the Cougars should be ready to play on grass again in Elk Grove for the supersectional.

“It's definitely getting a lot better,” Chiero said. “We seem to be moving the ball a lot better than I thought we'd be and the ball is bouncing less, so we're judging the ball better.”

Schaumburg had reason to feel hard feelings over the way overtime played out. With 3 minutes left in that opening overtime, a breakaway foul was committed by a Schaumburg player, and a red card was issued, forcing the Saxons to play with 10 players the rest of the match.

Then the penalty kick call came following a through ball by Conant's Christina Rosales to Sammie van de Linde. Even Franco admitted justice was harsh on the Saxons.

“That is hard,” Franco said. “I was starting to think it was going into a shootout. It was deserved red. It was a little unlucky on the penalty. The ball popped out and Chiero got taken out and it's the last defender. I would be upset if it my team too. It's a hard way to end the game, by any means.”

Both team's goalies – Conant's Lindsay Fillingim and Schaumburg's Palcheck – had moments of brilliance in the match. Palcheck was called into action for the largest saves, including a breakaway save against Hailey Andress early in the first half and a point blank save from Kaitlin Chiero one minute into the second half.

“She made some excellent saves and had an excellent game,” Franco said. “It's too bad she had to try to stop a penalty kick to keep them in the game. But the whole (Schaumburg) team, for being beat up and injured, they played really hard.”