Wildcats look good in win over Niles North

CLICK HERE FOR PLAINFIELD CENTRAL'S TEAM PAGE

By Gary Larsen

The approach that Plainfield Central’s attack had to start the 2011 season boiled down to three verbs, courtesy of Wildcats coach Ken Schoen.

“Kicking and running and praying,” Schoen said.

In Saturday’s 2-1 win over Niles North in a Pepsi Showdown game in Schaumburg, Schoen’s girls showed him something more, particularly in the game’s first 40 minutes.

“I thought we got a pretty good effort. The first half was probably the best soccer we’ve played,” Schoen said. “We were knocking the ball around and finding the open players.”

Offensive mid Britney Lenza and defensive mid Lauren Kulaga shined during the Wildcats’ solid first half vs. Niles North, outside mid Julie Tomayo did her job, “and all of our outside mids are starting to understand where they need to be on the field,” Schoen said.

The Wildcats went into Saturday’s game on the heels of two learning opportunities. They played exceptionally well in a 1-0 loss to top-seeded and state-ranked New Trier, but gave up a flurry of goals in a loss to Hinsdale Central the next day.

Saturday’s win over Nile North saw a return to the effort that kept Plainfield Central in the game against New Trier.

“We’re getting better and hopefully we can keep this up,” Lenza said. “Today we were playing the ball well to each other, moving off the ball, and being aggressive. We’ve got to keep working hard the way we did today. At the start of the year we didn’t work off the ball and we didn’t talk as much as we needed. We’re doing those things better, we’re more aggressive, and we’re communicating so much better.”

Plainfield Central (2-4-1) grabbed a 1-0 lead on Saturday when forward Bailey Wysocki raced behind the defense and beat North’s keeper to a ball, and then went around her and deposited a shot into the empty net.

Wysocki made herself dangerous throughout, but Schoen is most pleased when his senior striker isn’t burdened with too much of the responsibility up top.

“She’ll bring her effort every game but you want everyone in the attack. It can’t be just one player,” Schoen said. “That’s what we were able to do today. She’s probably our top finisher and we want to get her good looks but it’s nice to get other girls involved, too. That way other teams can’t just focus on (Wysocki).”

Niles North tied the game at 50 minutes but the Wildcats got the game’s decisive goal after Wysocki sent in a corner kick. The ball squirted out to Lenza, whose eyes got big.

“It came out and I shot it, left foot,” Lenza said. “It came right to me and I just saw an open hole.”

Lenza’s goal stood up to the final buzzer against a physical push for the tying goal by Niles North. Schoen was pleased with his side’s effort across the board and particularly pleased with what he got from outside defender Lisa Schroeder.

“She did a real nice job today,” Schoen said. “She’s really improving in getting into the attack. A lot of times today she was there wide in a good angle with no one on her, because no one is marking an outside back. She was able to bring the ball up a couple of times today.”

Another player now rising to challenge of being a freshman playing varsity soccer has been forward Shawna Watson, who may be turning a corner after negotiating the usual obstacles of being a young player playing with and against upperclassmen.

“She has been playing really well in our last three games,” Schoen said of Watson. “It can be a mental thing for freshmen. She is really attack-minded but maybe nerves played a part for her early in the year. She’d get the ball and give it up right away and we just tell her ‘you’ve got speed, you’ve got touch, and you can beat people, so go ahead and do it up top’.”

In Thursday’s game vs. New Trier, center backs Kelsey Graefen and Melissa Del Sarto, and outside backs Schroeder and Jessica Kaminski played rock-solidly in the face of a Trevians attack that can come at you like gangbusters.

“New Trier is outstanding and we played them on a big field, which we weren’t used to, and they were able to spread us out and knock the ball around,” Schoen said. “But we did a real good job defensively of not lunging in, and the effort was there for eighty minutes. They played their butts of in that game.”

April 13, 2010 is a day no one on the Wildcats’ current roster has forgotten, and that memory will be put to use on Tuesday at home, in their annual game against Southwest Prairie Conference rival Minooka.

“They beat us 4-3 and they scored four in the first half,” Lenza said of last year’s meeting between the teams. “We came back in the second half and scored three. We’re going to do our hardest in that game and we’re expecting the same quality team we played against last year.”