West Suburban Sports

Fenwick's first-half barrage buries Huskies

By Dave Miller

As entertaining as it was, Oak Park and River Forest did not want its final home game of the season to end like this.

The Huskies scored in the first minute, but then watched local rival Fenwick score three unanswered goals in the first half on its way to beating them 4-2 Thursday evening in front of a larger-than-normal crowd.

The feisty, enthusiastic fans saw the teams combine for five goals in a wild first half that ended with Fenwick (14-7-2) holding a 3-2 lead. Senior Clare Madden wound up scoring a hat trick for the Friars, who tied a program record for wins in a season with the victory.

“Obviously it’s a phenomenal environment,” Fenwick coach Robert Watson said. “Oak Park is an extremely good team, so it’s a big win for us. It’ll give us momentum going into state.”

It marked the first time the Friars defeated OPRF (10-5-2) in at least five years, but Huskies coach Paul Wright looked on the bright side.

“It’s such a great experience at the end of the season because it gets you ready for the playoffs,” Wright said. “What was a real big positive, too, was to see the community out here. It really makes the game.”

“It’s not fun to lose, but we had a great crowd,” OPRF senior Emily Gullo said.

The Huskies gave the home fans reason to cheer in the first minute. Tess Trinka took a pass from Gullo and booted the ball into the goal from the left side just 29 seconds into the contest.

Fenwick answered in just over five minutes. Audrey Kiefer beat a defender to the ball in front of the OPRF net and scored to tie the game.

Four minutes later, Madden slid down the right side and slipped the ball into the goal to put the Friars in front 2-1.

In the 31st minute, Madden struck again with a brilliant individual effort. She somehow dribbled through a pair of defenders on the left wing and then beat a third defender before blasting a bullet into the net, giving Fenwick a 3-1 advantage.

“My coach has been telling me all season to just take people on,” Madden said. “He’s given me a lot of confidence so I finally decided to listen.”

Just two-and-a-half minutes later, Gullo headed in a goal off a pass from Sara McCall for her 17th score of the season to bring the Huskies within 3-2.

“We came to play,” Wright said. “If you take a look at the first half we gave up a couple quality shots and they scored. I felt like we possessed the ball for the majority of the first half. They transitioned a couple times on us and got goals. On every goal I thought we had a mental lapse in back and they punished us.

“We came out with that first strike and I thought that was going to set the tone for the rest of the game. We had a mental lapse where they slotted a ball through and got a goal, and they took some of the wind out of us. The second goal that they got was just a poor clearance, you know, and I think there was some shell shock in us.”

Gullo thought the Huskies let down a bit after quickly jumped ahead 1-0.

“As a team, we’ve got to get up and we’ve got to hold that,” she said. “I think we kind of relaxed a little bit when we got the lead. You can’t do that, especially against a good team like Fenwick.”

After players and fans alike caught their collective breaths at halftime, the physical action tightened in the final 40 minutes.

Thanks in part to Fenwick’s back line led by Mia Patrevito and Meredith St. Clair, OPRF didn’t get off a shot on goal in the second half until the final minutes. Shelby Cozette and Gullo each put a header on net, but Fenwick goalkeeper Sydney Galvez-Daley stopped both attempts.

Then Madden recorded her third hat trick of the season when she scored her 17th goal of the season with seven seconds remaining off a long pass down the field.

“Best player on the field, I think,” Watson said of Madden.

“She was all over the place,” Wright said.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, they lost two defensive players to injury in the first half for the rest of the game. Renata Voci left with a deep charleyhorse to her right leg that caused a knot to well up and Rachel Durbin suffered what Wright said was likely a broken nose. Voci left the stadium on crutches with her leg wrapped.

“Losing two starters in the back with 60 minutes left in the contest, we had to do some shuffling around,” Wright said. “The big plus is we’ve been hurt all season so we were able to put kids in who have played those positions before.”

The Huskies will try to regroup and get ready for the state playoffs. They’ll meet either Morton or Westinghouse in the Class 3A Hinsdale Central regional semifinals on May 17.

“We need to get out of this week and get out of prom, and focus on Tuesday when we play in the playoffs,” Wright said.

The Huskies had won five in a row, but have gone winless in their last three outings. They lost to Lyons Township 1-0 on May 5 and tied Maine South 0-0 on May 7 before dropping their home finale. Wright is still looking for his group to execute in a game from start to finish.

“The biggest thing is we haven’t played a complete 80 minutes,” he said. “If you take a look at the LT game, we had a lapse with five minutes left. We had a lapse with a minute left here. If you don’t play a complete 80 minutes you’re not going to advance.”

“We just have to remember this feeling because the next time it’ll be the end of the season, so we can’t lose again,” Gullo said. “We’ve got to work hard.”

After the game, Wright announced Ignacio Ponce will replace him as head coach next season.

Ponce, 34, is a Spanish teacher at the school. This school year, he served as an assistant coach for the sophomore girls team as well as the JV boys coach, a position he will continue to hold.

"I like the game, I know the game and I live the game so it's an exciting moment," Ponce said. "It's nice to know some of the parents already and have the congratulate me tonight."

Wright will remain as head coach of the school's boys team.