Kotsakis lights up the Vikings' night vs. Lake Zurich

By Mike Garofola

Elise Kotsakis scored a first-half hat trick while the Fremd defense allowed little on the night, as the host Vikings comprehensively defeated Lake Zurich 5-2 Thursday evening in a non-conference soccer match in Palatine.

Kotsakis struck on 6, 13 and 26 minutes, her second coming after the Bears' Vanessa Abad drew the visitors even - to give the Vikings a lead they would never relinquish as they cruised to their second win in as many games after defeating St. Charles East 2-0 in a season opener on Tuesday.

“It was a good win for us tonight," began Kotsakis, who instead of speaking to her 4-goal explosion, instead turned the conversation towards the effort her teammates gave on this night.

"We have a nice mix of new players and seniors, and we're replacing two great players with Danielle (Romano, all-state defender) and Allison Norenberg - who graduated. But our defense is looking really good so far, and there's a lot of others who have given a really good effort so far."

The Butler-bound senior striker, who is one of a half-dozen who still remain from the state runner-up club from 2009 - helped put some early pressure on the Bears when she finished past keeper Maggie Monson, who had little chance to save any of Fremd’s 4 first-half goals

Following the Abad equalizer, it was all Fremd for the rest of the first half, with Kelsey Beschta sending Kotsakis through brilliantly to make it 2-1. Fremd sophomore Michelle Mottonen then put a perfect ball up and over the Bears backline to put Kotsakis in free and easy on the helpless Monson.

"One of the things I really like about this team is we have a lot of players who have soccer skills, and know how to play the game, which is fun as a player to be a part of," offered Mottonen.

Mottonen began the match up top and alongside Kotsakis as the Vikings opened with a 4-4-2, and later moved into the middle to show off her ability to be a playmaker and creator in helping to keep the Vikings attack running at full speed.

"I thought our first 20 minutes was pretty good overall, but right now we're struggling with our fitness, which came through loud and clear after watching Fremd have plenty of pace and energy for the full 80 minutes of soccer," offered Lake Zurich head coach Meghan Kolze, who in her prep days was a superb player and 2-time all-state defender at Lake Zurich, before moving on to star at the University of Illinois and eventually become an All Big-10 selection in her senior year there.

The Vikings' backline of Emily Basten, Kristin Abruscato and Jennifer Freeman, all back from last year, stayed organized in front of their new starter between the sticks, Shannon Norris, who has big shoes to fill at that position after its 3-year star Norenberg left for college.

"Not having Danielle or Allison back there after seeing them in there for 3 years is something that we obviously will miss, but we have a lot of confidence in our back 4. They’ll make things a little easier for any of the keepers that we have in the starting lineup," said Fremd head coach Steve Keller, who at the hour mark brought on sophomore Christine Piasecki for the final 20 minutes of play.

The best goal of the night came off the boot of Caroline Wagner, who from 35 yards struck a right-footed bomb which caught the Bears keeper much too far off her line to even have a chance of stopping the well-paced blast. Wagner’s shot finished in the upper left corner at 28 minutes to send the home side into the break with a 4-1 lead.

"We've put in a brand new system, and there's still a lot of work for us to do to get comfortable playing that way, but we allowed two balls to be played over our backline which resulted in two goals,” Kolze said. “And we played a little too nervous in that first half against a well-coached team that is considered one of the best in the state year-after-year.”

Mottonen, Nicole Leginski and Beschta proved to be too much in the middle of the park for the Bears, who played hard but struggled to keep up the pace the Vikings were playing at.

"It really gives a team a head-start when you've already played a game this season, and your opponent is out there playing their very first match of the year," offered Mottonen, who recorded the helper on Kotsakis' fourth and final goal of the night at 49 minutes to put a little extra icing on the Vikings' lead.

Keller began to bring most of his first-11 off for the rest of the match at the hour mark, and the quartet of Bekah Bostrom, Bree Nishibun, Morgan Delapa and Nicole Obos all put in a solid 20 minutes of work down the stretch to take full advantage of their time on the pitch, while keeping the visiting Bears at bay, after conceding a goal at 64 minutes by Molly Murrin.

"It was a good game for us tonight, but I honestly thought we created more quality opportunities against St. Charles the other night, but we couldn't finish on many of them. Tonight, we did," began Keller.

"Nonetheless, the overall effort was pretty good, and we're beginning to understand a little bit more of how to play our current formation, and we'll be that much better when we get Alexis (Tice) back in the middle. She brings so much energy and ball-winning skills, which we lack right now, and we’ll need that when play begins in our conference, and when we start to take on some of the top teams in the state at the Naperville Invite."

Tice is expected back after the break, as is Jessa Rizzo, who can and will play nearly every field position, in addition to Alissa Kotrba, who is currently recovering from an ankle injury.

The Vikings will open play in the MSL on Wednesday, March 30 at Schaumburg in the first of two big MSL West matches within a week, with division favorite Conant up next on April 6th.

 

FREMD 2011 TEAM PREVIEW:

Last year's overall/conference record: 16-5-2 overall, 8-2-2 MSL

Top returnees: Elise Kotsakis (SR, F, 17 goals, 3 assists), Alexis Tice (SR, M, 1 goal, 2 assists), Michelle Mottonen (SO, M/F, 4 goals, 7 assists), Emily Basten (JR, D, 1 assist), Nicole Leginski (SR, M, 1 assist), Kristin Abruscato (SR, M/D, 2 goals, 1 assist), Jessa Rizzo (SO, M/F, 1 goal)

Team outlook: Coach Steve Keller: "We are looking forward to another successful season.  We return many of our attacking players.  We need to sort out our defense and goalie, as we lost very important players in those areas.  I think the outlook is bright.  We should compete for the MSL championship and be ready to do some damage in the state tournament."