Tigers complete shutout of SPC vs. Minooka

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By Bill Scheibe

It was a quick pass inside the penalty-box area by Plainfield North’s Shayna Dheel to senior forward Katie Cox. Then it was a quick trap, a quick turn and a quick trigger for a quick, low and accurate shot by Cox, the latter nestling as it spun like a toy top into the side-netting of the far-right corner.

Quick being the emphasis.

All coming during a seven-goal first half, Cox contributed a three-goal hat trick Thursday afternoon and scored the winner in the sixth minute. She also added an assist as the host Tigers kept up the pace in clinching their third consecutive Southwest Prairie Conference title with an 8-0 demolition of Minooka.

Junior forward Callie O’Donnell delivered two goals and an assist and junior midfielder Ashley Auble also scored twice as Plainfield North (16-2-2, 7-0) notched its ninth straight win and ninth straight shutout. Dheel, a freshman midfielder, complemented the upperclassmen with a goal and a pair of assists.

“We have a lot of speed on our team and we know how to pass to each other,” Cox said. “As the season has gone on, we’ve gotten to know each other better and we’re connecting on passes more frequently.”

“Definitely, Katie was on fire,” Dheel said of Cox, who scored twice in the opening 10:03 to establish the Tigers’ dominant flow. “We’ve been working really well together, especially the last couple of games.”

Senior Night turned into a typical, all-around display for the flying Tigers, who also received two assists from junior midfielder Kelsey Gill and a combined shutout from junior goalkeepers Paige Polonus (2 saves) and Emily Brodict. Minooka (8-10, 4-3) fell behind by a 5-0 count with 19:04 left in the first half.

“They’re a solid team,” Indians coach Chris Brolley said. “I don’t think there’s one player you can pinpoint as being that one who leads them to their success. If you took their best player off of the field, I still think they would win the conference title. They are that good, and that balanced, of a team.”

And Cox, for one, came out teeming to start the first half. She wrapped a perfect shot around the right post as the lid-lifter before controlling a quick, flicked feed from O’Donnell and powering a shot past sophomore goalkeeper Deaven Hudson (5 saves), a converted defender, into the right corner.

Already going most of the year without superb senior goalkeeper Sam Gewalt – see feature story – and senior backup April Wilke (sprained ACL), Minooka alternated goalies with Hudson and junior Alysha Alonzo, who was nothing short of outstanding with nine saves during the 20-minute second half.

“We decided if we had to use two, they would be it, and Alysha was our backup to the backup to the backup,” Brolley said, shaking his head. “I don’t know; something like that. We’ve gone through goalies.”

Beginning with the back-to-back barrage by Cox, Plainfield North acted like a golfer playing through, allowing only shots wide by sophomore forward Jillian Hetfleisch, a 20-yard blast by Ball State-bound senior midfielder Becca Sutton and Polonus’ diving stop on freshman forward/defender Marisol Galvan.

Too quick. Too good. Too much.

“They’re a very talented team and, clearly, they have been a very talented team for the past three years in our conference,” Sutton said. “It’s tough to go through, but we’ll move on. When teams are better than you, it’s just something that you have to accept and you have to try to learn from. We’ll be fine.”

From Cox’s kick-start goal to Auble’s goal to culminate the scoring with 13:16 remaining in the second half, North’s 4-3-3 ran like a fine-tuned machine. Even after Wednesday’s 2-0 win over ranked Lake Forest at Toyota Park, and despite the heat, the Tigers had enough hop in their step to clear any hurdles.

“It felt great,” Dheel said. “I don’t think we’re a cold-weather team. We’re more of a hot-weather team, and we always do well in this type of climate. And especially it being the day for our seniors, we wanted to win conference. We’ve heard it was harder to win conference in the past, but now we expect to win.”

“I think that’s what we know we need to do,” Plainfield North coach Jane Crowe said. “I think the past couple of years we’ve played to the other team’s level, no matter what team it was. I think this year we’ve been able to play at a high level no matter what the situation or no matter what the team.”

Goal-scoring matters for North were handled in rapid-fire fashion. With 27:19 left in the first half, sophomore forward Ashley Handwork was dumped on the right side of the box, seconds after being stymied by Hudson on a point-blank breakaway attempt. Auble converted the penalty kick for a 3-0 lead.

From there, the Tigers scored three more times in 6:56. O’Donnell tapped Gill’s deflected cross into the empty lower-left corner, O’Donnell stole the ball at the top of the box and buried a shot again into the lower-left corner and Cox eluded a slide tackle and dished from the end line to Dheel for a one-timer.

Quick. Quick. And quick.

“We played a very good team yesterday in Lake Forest and that prepared us to play at a high level today against Minooka,” Crowe said. “And, without a doubt, we were able to turn, pass and play quickly.”

“It was the seniors’ night to shine,” Cox said. “When we play against the harder teams, it challenges us more, and we bring it against the other teams, too. We wanted to come out and win for the seniors.”

Two of those seniors, stopper Brianna Buckley and St. Ambrose-bound defender/sweeper Hayley Wegryzn, regularly anchor the Tigers’ zero-tolerance defense. Senior Marissa Basar also started on the outside with Wegryzn on the back end, and the four-year journey seemed short after the season finale.

“It is,” Wegrzyn said of the bittersweet moment. “To be able to go from when I was a freshman, and it was hard and difficult, and now we’re together and we have it great. This year, we trust each other more and we always have each other’s back. I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time.”

Before long, however, North will quickly refocus its celebratory sights on the Class 3A playoffs and a regional opener as the sixth seed against conference rival Plainfield South, the No. 11 seed.

Playoffs being the emphasis.

“We expected to win conference this year, but it still feels good,” Wegryzn said. “But I’m hoping to go beyond regionals this year. We haven’t been able to do it before, but I’m excited and hoping we can.”