Wysocki scores five straight goals as Wildcats roll past Romeoville

 

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By Bill Scheibe

To say that Plainfield Central senior Bailey Wysocki scored her goals in bunches on a windy and chilly Thursday afternoon is like pointing out that the Willis Tower in Chicago is pretty big for a building.

True that.

Yes, it's a tall order to score two goals in 26 seconds and then score another two in 22 seconds, but where Wysocki clearly separated from the pack was her ability to create and capitalize on breakaways.

Truer that.

"Their defense played really high, we found those gaps and took advantage of it," said Wysocki, who stayed bundled up in a blanket on the bench during the entire second half. "And I just go on breakaways. I try not to think about it because usually when I think about it, I kind of over think it.

"When I have more pressure on myself, when it's not super simple, I can go and let things happen."

What happened to host Romeoville was the result of a rock-em, sock-em performance by Wysocki. The Saginaw Valley State-bound forward scored a high school career-high five goals – all tallied consecutively in the first half – as the Wildcats unleashed their claws in a 6-0 Southwest Prairie Conference blowout.

While Wysocki secured her five goals on breakaways for Plainfield Central (3-5-1, 1-2), sophomore midfielder Sami Jensen connected on a one-timer 1:31 into the second half to culminate the scoring. It was only the second game back for Jensen, who sat out a stretch with 18 stitches above her right eye.

Freshman forward Shawna Watson totaled a pair of assists, with junior midfielder Lauren Kulaga, junior defender Kelsey Graefen, junior midfielder Adabel Ortega and freshman midfielder Giana Acevedo each adding assists. Sophomore goalkeeper Sara Armstrong (3 saves) stepped in and notched the shutout.

Stepping it up was Wysocki, who once scored seven goals in a club game. She used her speed and sense to slice through the space between the stopper and sweeper, scoring her first four goals in a span of 4:32 beginning at 15:02 of the first half before cashing in with, what else, a breakaway at 2:34 left.

Truth: it was the burst of Bailey.

"She can take over a game," Central coach Ken Schoen said of Wysocki. "She has shown that for us in the past and it's good to see. We started out slowly, and maybe the weather had something to do with it because it's tough to get loose right away. But it was really nice to score them in bunches."

"My teammates made it happen," Wysocki said, wisely passing around the credit. "I owe it all to them. They played the balls to me and made me look good. I couldn't have done it, scored five goals, without them. With players like Lauren and Kelsey and everyone else backing me up, I owe it all to them."

After losing 5-0 to Plainfield North and 5-1 to Minooka, both games at home in conference, the visiting Wildcats played like they owed someone something. And after a scoreless 24:58 to open the first half, Romeoville (4-5, 2-3) ended up being the punching bag on the receiving end of a knockout haymaker.

The prettiest sequence developed with 15:02 left in the first half for the 1-0 lead. Kulaga curved a perfect through-ball feed around the Spartans' defense and Wysocki split the seam, eventually running down the ball and popping the winning goal into the far-right corner from an extremely tight angle.

"I thought that one was great," Kulaga confirmed. "We worked the ball up the field, and I'm so glad we got a pass up to her. Once we got that one, we were able to get a good streak of goals going, and that's what we need to do. Once we got it up there to Bailey, we were scoring one goal after another."

Indeed, 26 seconds later, Watson worked the ball ahead to Wysocki. She dribbled uncontested into the box, pulled out Nicole Ramaglia and slipped a shot underneath the junior goalkeeper for the 2-0 edge. Watson also assisted on the next goal, with Wysocki converting a 30-yard run into the lower-left corner.

"We definitely stepped it up after we scored the first goal and our shots kept going in," Watson said. "It was nice because Bailey would dribble it up and get past all of their defenders and everything."

"We were able to have possession, control the ball and work it outside and inside, slowly building an attack instead of just kicking the ball forward," Schoen said. "You could see the difference."

The fourth goal for Wysocki, which occurred a mere 22 seconds after her third, was barely different from the previous strike. Again, she powered a shot into the lower-left corner. Ortega's beaut of a through-ball pass with 2:34 until halftime saw Wysocki finish a blast into the short-side left corner.

"I had a feeling … I knew that I had five goals," said Wysocki, whose four-goal outburst came in 4:32. "But I didn't know I did it in about four minutes or whatever. I just got the passes and kept going in."

From here, Plainfield Central wants to keep the pace from Romeoville going. The Wildcats started the season 0-2-1, beat Chicago Payton, then went on a 1-3 streak featuring a 2-1 win over Niles North. They needed a rout after losses to top-caliber programs like New Trier, Hinsdale Central and St. Charles East.

"We'll have our confidence back after this game," Kulaga said. "We've had some up-and-down games, but we worked on our skills and it's good for our team to see what we have to do and how to do it."

"Yeah, I think so," Watson agreed. "I think we stepped it up after playing all of those hard games. We definitely brought it out here today, and I hope we can keep doing that again and again and again."

And Wysocki, who seemed to score again and again and again, acknowledged the fine line between winning and losing in April can become the growth spurt that carries the Wildcats into late May.

Believe that.

"We know that we can play at a high level," Wysocki said. "We know we're capable of greatness. Sometimes we make mistakes that get us down, so it's good to have something like this boost us up."