Fresh faces help Fillies get past Naperville North

By Mike Garofola

Following another injury to add to its growing list, Barrington would ask several of its young players to step forward and make a contribution to the cause Wednesday afternoon when a talented side from Naperville North came calling in an annual nonconference match between two perennial soccer powers.

With freshmen Elli Ackermann and Mia Calamari, along with sophomore Aimee Pierce sparking the home-side, and veterans Sara Condon and Emily Hyde providing the leadership, the Fillies defeated the visiting Huskies 1-0 to break a 5-game losing streak against the visitors and head coach Brent Terada, who left the Barrington program in 2006 to join North.

"It was a really good win for us," admitted Condon, who looks to be the player coach Ryan Stengren will lean on to run the Fillies' attack in the middle of the park following a strong sophomore season for the reigning MSL champs in its first-11.

"I was real proud of our defense, which did a great job all throughout the match, and especially one of our freshmen (Calamari) - who did a really good job (defending) against North," said Stengren, whose team improved to 2-0-0 on the young season.

The Fillies' backline, rebuilt almost entirely after the loss of all-state defender Amy Johnson, among others, did well to stay organized, while keeping a talented group from Naperville far away from its senior keeper Kelly Pedersen, who was called upon just a few times during the match.

"Coming in, we were a little worried about North's physical, direct play, and how dangerous they would be on (their) set pieces in and around our box," admitted Stengren, whose club defeated Glenbrook South earlier in the week 1-0 in its season opener.

"Mia did a great job for us today, and along with Dana Kopp (who was a starter last season) and Morgan Stachura and Emily Morin, we showed that we could defend against a quality team."

The Huskies (1-1-0) had other ideas as they looked to continue their goal-scoring ways after blasting West Aurora 7-0 the day before on the strength of three goals from Kaileen Devenham.

But the junior striker, along with her mates up top, Alex Wernette and Tori Novak, as well as Adrienne Schertz running out of the middle, didn't really generate much going forward until Hunter Drendel and Christa Szalach (with Schertz) would breathe some life into the Huskies' attack in the final quarter hour before intermission.

"Barrington pressured us a lot more than we saw against West Aurora did in our first match, and we didn't do well with that at times, and panicked and made some poor decisions with the ball," said Huskies junior Jamie Meno, who struck several quality balls off of set-pieces opportunities to give the Fillies' faithful, and their coaching staff, plenty to worry about.

"We're still very young in some spots, and we'll get better as we go along, but we (will) have to work on how we react when teams make us work harder."

The home side, and their 2010 goal-scoring leader (Hyde), teammed with Pierce to create an early chance at four minutes - but the Fillies outside midfielder (Pierce) sprayed her shot wide of Huskies keeper Abby Green, who later did well to come off her line to punch away a looping corner from Hyde near the spot at 22 minutes.

Just prior to that, Kirsten Anderson, whose darting long throws, especially deep in the Fillies' end, proved to be troublesome at times, ran onto one of her own throws which was cleared poorly - and strike strike a one-timer off the football crossbar from 20 yards.

Barrington would enjoy the run of play following the Anderson shot, and with the aforementioned Condon, and her running mate, Sarah Fox, the Fillies would control most of the 50-50 balls in the middle of the park.

The Fillies constantly found Pierce, who was running free up the left side, and Hyde, who for the first quarter hour was playing out of the middle, before inching her way forward to add numbers in the host's attack.

Novak nearly stunned the home side when she broke free from a pair of defenders and caught up to a superb ball out of the back from Meno.

With a hard-charging Pedersen out to challenge off her line, Novak's shot went just wide of the open net in which the Barrington keeper left to keep things scoreless at 37 minutes.

Moments later, with Drendel and Debenham this close to Pedersen, the senior pulled a 50-50 ball out of the air from in close to end what was a very promising finish to the first half.

"I really liked some of the things we did in that first half," began Terada. "We were winnning balls, and our midfield was playing hard and controlling the play, but we could have been a little sharper when we got in and around their box."

"We lost a really good attacking player to graduation (Rycke Guiney), and Zoe (Swift) isn't back yet, so we're going to struggle a little bit on that side of the ball for awhile," offered Meno after the match.

Novak would go over the bar on an attempt after a Wernette corner to start the second half, while Pierce did the same on the other end, and while both sides tried to play through the middle, and link with people up top, most of the play stayed between both boxes until the 63rd minute when Ackermann broke the deadlock with her game-winner.

The Fillies' rookie striker, who had missed time with a virus and isn't match fit yet according to her coach, came in from the left side to find and collect a clever ball from Dana Nelsen - before going to the far post and past the outstreched gloves of Green, who gave it all she could to stop the would-be game winner.

"Elli is going to give us a lot of good soccer before the season is over, but she has to get (back) in shape after missing so much time," offered Stengren.

The Huskies' would quickly regroup and go searching for the equalizer, and once again, it was another free kick from Meno which gave the visitors a chance - this time with Szalach heading over the bar at 64 minutes and later, after a third consecutive long throw from Anderson, and corner from the near flag.

But the Fillies' backline, as it was for the entire match, was up to the task, as it cleared a Meno corner from the area - then went about marking the extra couple of players Terada threw forward for the final five minutes of regulation.

"Again, it was a good win for us against a very good team, but we have to keep it in persepctive, because it is so early, and there's so much more soccer ahead of us," said Stengren.

The Fillies are awaiting word on the status of one of their top scoring threats, Molly Pfeiffer, who suffered a lower leg injury against Glenbrook South, and was ruled out of play on this day, and on Saturday against state power Neuqua Valley.

For Terada, and his Huskies, next up will be Hinsdale Central as it takes to the road this Saturday for a noon kickoff.

"There's plenty to work on, but that's okay, because that's what you do this time of the year," began the Huskes head coach.

"We saw a lot of good things out there as I said, and we're going to be in good shape once we figure things out a little bit, and get everyone back, and where they need to be."