Bartlett too much for Wildcats in Plainfield

 

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By Steve Nemeth

As important as a victory was for Bartlett, coach Heather Thomas hoped the fashion in which the Hawks posted a 5-2 triumph Friday at Plainfield Central will pay bigger dividends.

“We’ve been in such a slump, but putting in multiple goals early, dominating play, possessing the ball, playing the ball to feet, all the little things like marking better which improves all-around play coupled with finally having some fun, will hopefully make a huge difference for us,” Thomas stated.

Since a once-promising 5-1-2 start, the Hawks managed just a lone win in the last seven outings. Flip this latest success into the loss column and the current 7-5-4 record would appear to be teetering toward a drop.

A plethora of attacks and counterattacks finally paid off with one of the five first-half corner kicks as Jessica Cosentino’s service was smartly headed home from seven yards by Lisa Palmer.

“Ever since I started playing soccer I’ve loved headers,” Palmer shared with a grin. “We work on them at every practice and I was lucky enough to be the one to get such a great cross from Jessica.”

That 1-0 lead developed in the 23rd minute of the opening half, at which point the host Wildcats had yet to manage an attempt, let alone a shot on goal.  But that all changed when Bartlett’s Palmer --- a tremendously vocal leader on defense --- lost her footing on field conditions which ranged from squishy to swampy.

That’s when Sami Jensen swooped in to head goal ward for a 1-v-1 with Bartlett goalie Natalie Grodzki.  The Plainfield Central sophomore, who had the equalizer the day before to force overtime in what became an eventual Wildcat win off a penalty kick shootout, knotted this game at 1-1.

Rather than be disappointed at losing its one-goal lead, Bartlett (7-7-1) immediately returned to the offensive and in just over a minute went back ahead as Trisha Donlon launched a 20-yard rocket that Wildcat keeper Janna Pascente leapt high for, only to have the ball skip off her hands and under the crossbar.

“I was trying for a hard, high shot and it went exactly as I wanted,” Donlon said.

Within six minutes the Hawks were back pressing the attack when Nicki Noreen’s excellent cross  to the far side found Nicole Gobbo waiting to tuck a three-yard tap between Pascente and the inside of the left post for a 3-1 advantage that remained through the last 10 minutes of the opening half. It was Gobbo’s team-high 10th goal of the season.

“The one thing people have to know about is we all come out to play hard, regardless of who our opponent is,” insisted Donlon. “The only trouble has been that we’ve been a little unlucky as of late shooting just wide or finding the post or crossbar.”

Actually the second half was barely two minutes old when Donlon once again found the back of the net with her two-goal showing upping her season count to three goals. Once again, Noreen was the set-up artist as her service led to 10-yarder from directly out front.

“On that one I was aiming for the right corner all the way,” Donlon noted. “Getting a second goal and adding to our lead felt really good.”

Once again, Plainfield Central mustered a response. The Wildcats worked the ball up field and Jessica Kaminski’s assist fed into an eight-yarder from the left side by Lauren Kulaga, who also had one of the two regulation-time goals from the game before.

As a non-conference meeting overtime would not have been used but just to make certain the hosts didn’t get their hopes up for a draw, Bartlett increased its cushion in the 64th minute.

Ashley Johnson booted a corner kick toward the goalie crease and Brittany Van Ness redirected it for her first goal of the year.

“It was nice to see Ashley get in on the scoring because usually as a stopper she’s doing everything needed at the opposite end,” BHS coach Thomas explained. “She goes in hard, plays solid defense, plays the ball to feet and is just a very consistent player.

“In that same respect, Aubrey (Czekajlo) is very persistent and also does all those little things that may not show up statistically, but is really appreciated by the coaching staff,” Thomas concluded.

The Bartlett boss also liked seeing her team’s numbers advantage for overall attempts (35-4), shots on target (19-4) and corner kicks (7-1).

Despite the statistical imbalance, Plainfield Central junior Julie Tamayo refused to use the previous day’s success as a drawback for the contest against the Hawks. The Wildcats erased an early 2-0 deficit with one first half goal and then forced overtime against Oswego East on Thursday.

Under Southwest Prairie Conference rules, the deadlock remained through two additional 10-minute extra sessions before Plainfield Central came out on top of the shootout by a 4-3 PK count.

“That was yesterday and I’m certain the natural tendency is to believe you can have a letdown after a big game, but I believe we played hard today only not to have enough chances,” Tamayo said.

When asked if it was disappointing to have each of their scores answered quickly by additional Bartlett goals, the junior wouldn’t settle for that notion either.

“After any goal you give up, you simply have to have a mindset that it’s 0-0. You can’t start thinking about a deficit or you may give up. But it’s always frustrating when the final whistle sounds and you lose.”

Plainfield Central coach Ken Schoen did allow how 100 minutes of soccer and an emotional revenge win over a conference foe might have had an impact.

“We’re not exactly deep to begin with, plus we’re a little beat up; now add 100 minutes from a match that ended fairly late, yeah I’d say our legs were a little heavy and at times we couldn’t move in the same fashion as we normally would,” Schoen said. “But I don’t want to take anything away from Bartlett because they kept possession of the ball for most of the game and their touches were great.

“Kelsey (Graefen) does a great job for us in back and she always brings a lot of energy. I thought we played a lot better in the second half and a lot of that was due to her,” Schoen added.

Plainfield Central returns to SPC play on Wednesday hosting Oswego before taking part in the Lemont Cup and then closing the regular season with a visit to SPC rival Plainfield East.

Friday’s match was the first of seven matches away from home for Bartlett, which returns to Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division play with a Tuesday visit to Metea Valley. Then comes a trio of matches in West Chicago’s Wild West Shootout tourney, followed by a match with UEC Valley foe Waubonsie Valley and a crossover finale with St. Charles North.