Wildcats kick off season with victory over Spartans

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By Curt Herron

Coaches aren't always pleased by what they witness during the opening match of a season, but that wasn't the case on Saturday in West Chicago.

That's where St. Francis and Wego kicked off their seasons in a matchup of two teams who head into the year with a sense of genuine optimism.

For Wildcat coach Cesar Gomez, seeing his squad play well against another good team was an ideal start for what's expected to be a promising season.

And for new Spartans coach Jim Winslow, finally seeing his team in action against a quality opponent provides much valuable insight on their future.

Wego capitalized on some early chances which allowed it to grab a 2-0 halftime lead over the Spartans, who performed much better after the break.

After St. Francis made things interesting by closing to within a goal, the Wildcats responded with a score of their own to close out a 3-1 victory.

Senior forward and co-captain Meagan Radloff collected two goals and assisted on her team's other score to lead the way for the winning Wildcats.

Neither coach was too concerned about the final outcome, focusing more on what they saw from their teams than worrying about who just won or lost.

Although pleased to get a win over a team like St. Francis, Gomez was happier to see the Wildcats perform well throughout most of the 80 minutes.

That's an encouraging beginning for a team that returns 12 players, including several key performers, from last year's squad that won nine matches.

"We're finally starting to reap the benefits of a lot of hard work," Gomez said. "We try to play simple, attractive soccer and the leadership is working out among our 12 returning players.

"I tried to put it on them that they need to be the leaders, not me, and so far it's working. We do a lot of hard work during the week and this is the kind of result that we're looking for.

"We played against a good team today and things just went more our way than for it did for them. But that's what this game is all about and the better team doesn't necessarily win the game."

Meanwhile, Winslow was happy with how his team responded during the final 40 minutes by putting themselves in a position to get back into the match.

With several key players back from a squad that won 15 matches a year ago, the Spartans also have good reason to be upbeat about the current season.

Now their veteran coach has a better idea about who fits in best at what positions and what things his squad may be able to perform well this year.

"This game gave me a much better grasp of frankly what some of our kids are capable of," Winslow said. "I'd seen them in practice but now that we have a game under our belts, now I can move forward.

"We gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game in the second half after creating more opportunities. And the things that we did makes mistakes on for the most part are fixable, which is important.

"I think for the most part that the girls have been really good about listening and trying different things. That's good because we played differently in the second half than we did in the first half."

After an exchange of threatening shots from St. Francis' Andi Matichak and Radloff, the hosts moved in front for good midway through the first half.

In the 20th minute, Radloff sent in a shot from the side that was cleared toward Bianca Navejas, who fired in a liner for the match's initial goal.

Just moments after that, Matichak was denied on another attempt within close proximity to the net by the Wildcat keeper, senior Kelsey Myers.

Wego tried to grab a 2-0 lead about five minutes after its first score but the effort was denied when Jenna Ditusa halted a liner from Jenny Amaro.

The Wildcats did get the second goal a short time later, however, when Radloff made a penalty kick following a foul in the box in the 32nd minute.

St. Francis' Sydney Fox was stopped by Myers on a liner shortly after that and Wego's Lauren Ott was just wide on an attempt just before the break.

"We're really excited about how we played in our first game," Radloff said. "You always know that you're for a tough, close game against St. Francis. So we really wanted to come out strong and win this game.

"After halftime when we were up 2-0, we knew that they were going to come out strong. After they got their goal to get to within 2-1, we tried to get one more goal in order to hopefully end it.

"We had some new people out there and we're happy with how well they played and how some of the younger kids stepped up. Every year we focus on possession and you could see how we tried to control the ball."

Wego continued to put the heat on Ditusa during the opening 20 minutes of the final half but saw each of its attempts eventually get turned away.

After Yvette Hernandez was stopped on a line drive, Kristyn Pavnica sent a shot a bit wide and then Andie Lazzerini fired a liner over the net.

In the 50th minute, Navejas got off an attempt that was deflected by the Spartan keeper before Radloff's try was cleared away by Taylor Ravin.

The Spartans nearly scored a few minutes later when Fox had a shot blocked by Myers in front of the net and a subsequent try went over the frame.

Wego responded with a Navejas shot that was blocked by Meg Wagner, who then cleared another try before Devan Orr lined an attempt a bit high.

St. Francis had the majority of good chances during the final 20 minutes, beginning with a short attempt from Hallie Woods that went to Myers.

The visitors caught a break in the 65th minute when a Wego player got a hand in the box on a Woods' shot and then Matichak made the penalty kick.

About five minutes after that, Hernandez looked like she might give her team their two-goal lead back but a defender deflected the shot away.

Wego finally got a goal back during the 74th minute when Radloff got free past defenders and put a short try into the opposite side of the net.

The Spartans had two more chances after that but Kaity Bucaro was denied by Myers on a short try and Matichak had two shots blocked by defenders.

Winslow was pleased with the efforts of Anna Vonderhaar and Dana Dubois on defense, Fox and Matichak at the forward spots and Ditusa in the net.

Gomez pointed to the defensive play of two freshmen, sweeper Shelly Molskow and rightside back Devan Orr, and also of his improved keeper, Myers.

WEST CHICAGO 2011 PREVIEW

Last year's record: 9-13-2 overall and 2-4-1 in the DVC

Top Returners: Meagan Radloff (Sr., F), Bianca Navejas (Jr., MF), Sarah Opel (Sr., D), Jenny Amaro (Jr., MF), Jessica Quinn (Jr., MF), Rachel Thomas (Sr., D), Kelsey Myers (Sr., GK), Andie Lazzerini (So., F)

Outlook: Coach Cesar Gomez: "Our goals are still the same, we would love to move up on the first half of the conference, get four wins and sneak on the 3rd or 4th spot. we return 12 players from last year and add 2 freshman and 3 sophomores. We have a team with good experience, now we just need to work hard and give some good competition to our opponents."